Zoobutt
by Shadow Goo
Summary: One Zubat always dreamed of being a trainer's partner. But when she's given out as a starter, her trainer doesn't trust her. Can she prove that everyone deserves a chance, or are they fated to fail? A story of trust, friendship, and Crobat's discovery.
1. Ch1: A wild Zubat appears

The sound of small wings flapping could be heard as Viola fluttered about Mount Moon aimlessly, ears twitching in an effort to pick up something peculiar via echolocation. She was rather small, even for a Zubat, and her fur was oddly ruffled and shaggy on the top of her little head and back; she'd spent a good amount of time rubbing her head all over various surfaces to make it ruffled to her liking. The few other Zubat in this part of the cave simply flew by without giving her a word of greeting, as if they didn't want to have anything to do with her.

Viola was used to this treatment, and didn't give it a second thought. She was, as the other Zubat put it, "naive natured." Trusting in others and usually very perky, she acted a little out of of place in such a dim and dank cave. This and her daily searching of the mountain sort of made her the odd one of the Mount Moon Zubat collective. This little issue primarily stemmed from a conversation she had a year or two back with a Paras while his trainer was busy recovering from an unfortunate encounter with a sociopathic Geodude. The Paras had mentioned his worry for his trainer; this confused Viola, as at that point in time she knew nothing of them. But upon hearing the experiences the trainers and pokemon went through together…everything changed. She heard of traveling to distant towns, working with all manner of different pokemon, intense battles with opposing trainers, and the teamwork of the trainer and his pokemon….it all sounded very romantic to her. Swept up in the romanticism of tales of combat and friendship, Viola began to idolize pokemon trainers. Every day she hoped that her sweet trainer prince would sweep her away from her parasitic lifestyle in Mount Moon and take her on a romantic and touching adventure of her own.

Of course, she didn't take into account the fact that she was a runt in a colony of possibly the most readily available pokemon species in all of Kanto. She didn't take into account the fact that most of her fellow Zubats regularly got beaten down in droves by random trainers passing through Mount Moon. She also didn't give much thought to the fact that she'd been waiting for her sweet trainer prince for somewhere around a year and a half now and had been ignored in favor of one of those fluffy little butterball Clefairies almost every time one came by. Armed with her ruffly hairstyle and Supersonic, she was certain in her mind that she would be unique and helpful enough to charter a spot on a fresh new trainer's team. With this enthusiasm, she had been patrolling the area near the Mount Moon entrance, constantly listening for the sound of a trainer entering to head through to the next city. She had always found at least one person heading through each day, but it was already almost dinnertime, and there hadn't been one new arrival. Come to think of it, even those trainers who had an odd tendency of hanging out in the deeper recesses of Mount Moon and challenging random other trainers to battles had been missing lately. Viola was starting to feel somewhat disconcerted by this turn of events, evidenced by the grimace her large, fanged mouth was screwed up in. Tired of her constant air patrol, she decided to give it a rest and fluttered down to a nearby rock ledge, stopping her fluttering a couple of inches above it and letting herself flop awkwardly forward onto a bed of moss that was growing on it. A Clefairy staring down from the edge of the rock twitched and instantly whipped around, but released a sigh of relief upon seeing that it was only a Zubat. It then turned back to the edge, watching whatever was down there with the steely patience of a Slowbro.

It was after only about five minutes of rest that Viola became curious of what the silent Clefairy was staring at so intently, and got up off the mossbed and silently crawled over to it on all fours. "Hey, whatcha looking at?" she asked politely, giving the Clefairy a hearty pat on the back with her wing that was enough to make it spaz out in fright again and nearly fall off the edge.

"J-G-Don't surprise me like that!" The Clefairy whispered in an unusually harsh tone of voice, one of its saucer-sized eyes twitching slightly. It also became evident from its voice that the candy-colored fluffball also happened to be one of the few male clefairies. Viola backed away a bit, wings raised in a defensive gesture. The Clefairy took in a deep breath and tried to calm down. Viola cocked her head at him curiously.

"Um, so, like I was saying, what were you looking at?" She asked again, this time a little more hesitantly. The Clefairy shot her an odd look, but figured it couldn't do any harm and gestured her to come over. She followed, and peered down, trying to see what could be so interesting.

"I've been keeping a close watch on that ladder, see?" the fluffy, pink creature said, pointing to a hole with a ladder in it that led down to a closer level of the cave. Viola nodded vaguely. "I know that someone will be coming up from it sooner or later, and when he does, I'll have to know so I can warn the other Clefairies. We're sort of trying to avoid him." Viola's interest piqued at this. Someone was coming through the cave from the opposite direction? Who would the Clefairies be desperately trying to avoid? She felt as if she had found herself at a cliffhanger, but then remembered that all she needed to do was ask.

"Who is he?" she inquired excitedly, looking away from the ladder to look up at him. He wasn't very tall in actuality, but from this angle the fairy pokemon seemed to tower over her in an (almost) ominous fashion. There was a moment of tense silence before the Clefairy uttered a single word.

"Oak."

Another, more awkward moment of silence and Viola giving him a blank look followed, prompting him to continue. "He's a professor. One of the most well known in his field, to tell the truth. He's been researching pokemon for years, and also sets up newbie trainers with their own pokemon and pokedexes, and sometimes even sends them out to do his dirty work for him. Though I guess this time, he decided to do it himself and is here catching pokemon for his research. And guess which rare pokemon happens to reside in this mountain that he would be eager to do some research on?" he said, with a tinge of bitterness in his voice.

"….Clefairies?" Viola replied nervously, somewhat taken aback by his sudden change in attitude.

"You got it. The guy's already captured 'bout three of our guys already. We've gotta hide from him, we don't have any idea what he'd do with us! He might dissect us or stab us with pointy needles or make us some Ditto's sex slave just to get some more Clefairy eggs!" the Clefairy rambled wildly, out of both fear and spite. Viola twitched a bit on the last one. "Er, kay." She responded uncomfortably, "I guess I'll tell you if I see him or something." The Clefairy relaxed a bit, mumbled an awkward "thanks," then noticed he had been distracted from his duty and immediately went back to watching the ladder even more intently than before, staring at it as if it would somehow telekinetically set everyone on fire.

Viola, meanwhile, had meandered back over to her bed of moss, the gears of her

mind working away excitedly. It wasn't a handsome trainer prince, but it was a very promising-sounding concept. A famous professor, heading through here to catch pokemon for research! More than that, he even gave pokemon to new trainers! Maybe if she got him to catch her somehow, then a whole new world would open up. Even if she didn't get to be a trainer pokemon maybe she could be like a lab assistant! She could find herself in battles too and-

"SNAPS AND DAMN, HERE HE COMES!" the Clefairy nearly screamed in a hysterical shrill before leaping off the edge and dashing into the depths of the cavern as fast. Viola instantly perked up and scrabbled madly over to the edge to see, her little heart pounding madly away, eager to meet her savior. Her savior happened to have been a middle-aged man in a lab coat who just finished pulling himself and his rather large bag up the ladder, and was sitting on the ground next to it panting profusely and swearing something under his breath about his Aide and mushroom spores. Viola, however, was undeterred; in fact, she was absolutely delighted nontheless. Unable to wait long enough for him to finish his break, she lunged off the ledge, broke into a divebomb, and beelined directly at him while squealing "Caaaaatch meeeeeeeeee!" which of course, to Oak, just sounded like "ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB!"

Even still, he jerked around to see the oncoming threat and, still sitting, quickly reached into his bag and forcefully hurled the first pokeball he got his hands on directly into Viola's path, hitting her in the chest and knocking her out of the sky. The Pokeball then hit a wall and abruptly tumbled to the ground with the small bat still clung to its outside, causing her to hit the ground with the weight of the ball still on top of her, and even then, it took almost a full three seconds of the pokeball pressing down on her on her for it to finally open and suck her in before shutting soundly with a definitive click, followed closely by a microwave-like "ding!" to indicate a successful capture.

Oak rubbed his head nervously. He'd definitely have to get the Zubat some medical treatment, but hey, whatever works. Hefting his bag back up, he walked over, picked up the ball, and casually dropped it in before picking up the pace and heading straight for the exit as fast as he could.

Viola's ball jostled around inside the bag.Her ribs hurt, the ride was getting increasingly bumpy, and every now and then another ball would knock into hers, which resulted in a sensation similar to what a hamster in a ball accidentally being used in a game of billiards would probably feel. But overall, she was ecstatic, optimistic, and couldn't have a care in the world.

Because she had been _captured._

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A/N: I wasn't going to upload this until I had finished the chapter with actual action in it, but I was impatient and curious as to what people would think of it. I know that I'll at least manage to get that one up. Also, yes, I am aware that in the anime Brock discovered Crobat.  
Any kinds of reviews are highly welcome.


	2. Ch2: Not very nice to meet you

Mason wasn't the genius of his class who studied training strategies every day, or the younger brother of a league champion, or anything like that. He regarded pokemon trainerhood more as something that was just going to happen eventually. He had a big heart, if a bit of a smartass for a ten-year old, and should probably lay off the burgers a bit. The stout, chubby boy stood not much taller than four feet high, and had short, wispy brown hair that clung loosely to his head. He wore a loose, plain yellow t-shirt he'd been sleeping in the night before that had a small patch covering a hole that got worn in it a while back, beige cargo shorts that covered most of his stubby legs, and a casual pair of sandals. Most people thought of his casual apathy about most things-including becoming a trainer-a bit unusual; in actuality, all it really was was that he only really wanted out of life was passive enjoyment and a few thrills.

The short boy grimaced as he got jostled around by the unorganized crowd of giddy schoolgirls (and boys) assembled within, all of them clamoring for an adorable partner of their own. Mason stood near the back of the crowd at a distance he thought would be far enough to prevent him from accidentally getting maimed by a riptide of children. All of them were being kept at by by Professor Oak's aid, who was standing in front of the door leading deeper into the lab, and the shelves upon shelves of pokemon. The Aide, a young man in a labcoat with glasses, freckles, and long oily black hair, was looking over a list of names with his trusty Abra floating in front of him as sort of a gesture for the trainers to stay back. He was starting to look increasingly flustered as the squeals and shouts of the various excited newbies were mounting. The Abra had even opened one of its perpetually-shut eyes a slit to give them a piercing glare; unfortunately, it did nothing to paralyze the hyperactive crowd, or even lower their defenses. Mr. Aide, as the children had begun calling him for a lack of any other name, loudly stammered out another name, prompting one of the pink-miniskirted young girls to dash past him and the aggravated psychic through the door, eager to receive her (possibly) adorable starter. Oak used to give out only the original trio of Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, but as demands for them grew, the professor wisely decided eventually that they had to stop doing so for the safety of their species; for now, it was pretty much anything goes as far as starters were concerned.

Mason couldn't help but feel tinge of growing nervousness about the identity of his starter. What if he did wind up with some rare adorable pokemon like Squirtle and got mobbed every day by fellow students, instantly becoming considered popular and being demanded to see it or trade it? What if he wound up with some weird thing that no one ever trained and you would never, ever be taken seriously for using? What if he got MAGIKARP?

No, Mason shook his head, dispelling the thought. That would never happen. No living human being could give a fresh new trainer a Magikarp for a starter and still be able to sleep at night.

"Mason Briggs," the aide called, snapping Mason out of his thoughts. The girl from earlier had emerged, pokeball in hand. She was smiling, but something about it seemed fake. Shrugging it aside, Mason awkwardly pushed his way through; fortunately, he had a bit more space than earlier, as some of the potential new trainers had crowded around the girl, eager to see her new friend. Finally getting through, he walked past the Abra (which Mason thought seemed to be looking at him more skeptically than the other kids) and up to the Aide, who opened the door to let him through.

As the door shut behind him, all noise from before was completely blocked out, as if he'd somehow meandered through a portal to another dimension. I'm not going to bother really gonna bother describing the interior of Oak's lab okay it's scientific and has lots of pokeballs. You know what it looks like. You've had it described several times and seen it in the show. Oak was busy fiddling around with some pokeballs on one of his many shelves of them. Turning around to look at him, he smiled warmly and gestured for Mason to come over. At this point he couldn't fight back the feeling that he was going to be screwed over in some way, but he walked over anyway.

"Ah, Mason. Nice to see you," Oak said merrily, "I've got a pokemon that I think you'll be able to work well with." Mason was somewhat unnerved by how Oak was acting so knowledgable about his pokemon interests.

"Er, how would you know which pokemon would be good for me? We haven't ever met before…."Mason said nervously, scooting back a bit. An idea clicked in his head. "Were you having the Abra outside read everyone's minds?" he promptly blurted.

Oak merely chuckled in his warm, fatherly way. "Ah, no, though that may be a good method in the future. Your dad tends to talk about his family a lot when we're playing poker together." Oak replied. That made sense, but it also brought to mind the question of just how many people Oak knew. Before he could open his mouth to ask, though, Oak had turned back to the wall, still talking. "I heard that you're a pretty easy-going person who mainly likes to relax and not work too hard. Thankfully, this little one here probably won't give you too much trouble, if at all," the professor stated, turning back to Mason with a pokeball he deposited in Mason's hand. He looked down at the pokeball oddly, with a sense of hesitance; that this is the moment of truth. However, he was interrupted from his dramatic thoughts by Oak saying "Well, don't you want to see? Press the button!"

Mason promptly did so. The flash of light was accompanied by weird dramatic music-had Oak bothered to build a sound system into the ball?-before it stopped in the air, gradually taking shape.

But the moment it finished, Mason's blood immediately turned into ice.

"…..Zubat."

It wasn't a Magikarp, but it was pretty damn close. The small bat pokemon, its hair ruffled awkwardly, looked around confusedly for a bit, taking the opportunity to flutter down and land on the dome-shaped machine that used to contain Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander, failing to notice Mason. Mason, however, was staring at the thing with rapt attention, occasionally rubbing his eyes like he couldn't possibly believe this was real. Oak easily picked up on the intense disbelief and disappointment radiating from the small child and decided to try and turn the situation around a bit. "Don't worry; she won't bite. Actually, she seems to be very fond of trainers, despite having never been trained before." Oak said. Upon hearing the word "trainer", the bat's ears perked up and she started swiveling around, scanning the area. "Like I said, I doubt you'll have trouble working with her-"

"Why _Zubat?_" Mason interrupted angrily. The boy was glaring up at him with a look that embodied all the kiddy rage of a million children denied ice cream. Oak honestly couldn't say he didn't see this coming, but he decided to play dumb anyway. He cleared his throat. "Why, I don't know what you mean, Mason." he replied, which was an obvious lie.

"What I mean is that it's _zubat._ I'm no pokemon genius, but even I know that Zubat are weaker than weak. Like, any attack KO's them instantly! And the first gym is ROCK-type, for God's sake!" Mason ranted indignantly. Finally picking up on the boy's location, the Zubat observed him carefully. He was holding…an empty pokeball?  
Oak mentioned trainers. Could it be that he was….her trainer?

Oak had to admit he did have a point with the gym, but if a loser with only an electric mouse, a pidgeon, and a butterfly to his name could beat Brock, than so could he. "Mason, I'm well aware Zubat isn't the strongest pokemon at first, but I'm certain with training one can become quite a powerful ally. You have to give it a try, I'm sure you can-"he couldn't finish before the angry boy cut back in.

"Powerful? Are you joking? Freaking _magikarp _gets a better deal than them! They turn into dragons, while Zubats just turn into fatter, hungrier bats!" Mason continued shouting, his face red with anger. "I swear, they're not even worth training, and you…you…."

"Mason." Oak had kneeled down so he was on eye level with Mason, and was firmly clutching his shoulders. His voice had taken on a gravely serious tone that Mason had never heard before-he could almost see a fire burning in the elderly professor's eyes. "It may seem like black and white to you; that there are strong and weak. But it's not that simple. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, every being, person or pokemon, deserves a chance. A chance to fight, a chance to succeed, a chance to win. This pokemon nearly broke a few ribs and a wing on her way here so she could get chosen. Will you deny her that chance?"  
All the anger immediately drained out of Mason as he blankly stared into the stony face of Professor Oak. The professor wasn't showing it, but the young trainer-to-be could easily tell that his words had struck a very wrong nerve. The small bat, having stared long and hard at the familiar empty ball in is hand, now wanted confirmation if she had truly been chosen. Getting up from the machine, she cheerfully flapped over to the two, a wide, friendly smile stretching across her face.

"Bat bat?" she asked, the english translation of which is inconsequential.  
"Well, Mason? She's waiting for your answer." Professor Oak asked, still in his unnerving calm.  
Mason looked upwards at the innocent grin of the Zubat. Then he looked back at the stony face of Professor Oak. Finally, he stammered out his answer.  
"Y-yes….yes, I'll train her." He said in a small voice, his eyes cast towards the floor.  
_Not like I had much of a choice to begin with._

The bat immediately overflowed with joy, flying in excited circles around her new handsome prince. Oak finally cracked a small smile, and released his deathgrip on Mason's shoulder's standing upright again. Mason looked up at the excitable bat, which upon noticing him looking at her, floated down near his face and started chattering excitably, which of course only sounded like a random series of "zu" and "bat".  
"Eheh…. Nice to meet you, zubat." he said, a little weirded out by how happy she was to see him even though they'd never met. A muffled voice could be heard outside the door from which Mason had entered the room.

"Ah, another trainer will be in here to get their pokemon soon. I guess it's time for you to go…" Oak said mildly, just as the pokemon had started nestling itself in its new trainer's wispy hair. Mason immediately paled; if one of the kids from his school saw his new starter, he'd never hear the end of it. "Er, kay. C'mon, Zoobutt, we're blowing this popsicle stand," he said, pointing the pokeball at his head.

Viola smiled as she felt herself get pulled back into the ball. Heehee, she had a nickname!

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A/N: I admit not much happened here apart from meeting Viola's trainer and seeing how little trust she's given, but this part on its own was long enough to be a chapter. I hope to finish the next one soon.  
"Zoobutt" is actually what I always called Zubats when I was a kid because they annoyed me. I also called Meowth "Peemouth". I WAS TOTALLY THE PINNACLE OF WIT BACK THEN.

Once again, any kinds of reviews and critiques are welcome. Lets me know if I'm doing stuff wrong, y'know?


	3. Ch3: LOL BATTLE

GENERAL AUTHOR'S HEALTH WARNING:  
LONG CHAPTER IS LOOOOOOOOOOOONG.  
Holy crap, guys, I actually lived up to my expectations of things getting rolling here. I could have easily divided this into two chapters after the first battle, but I wanted two fight scenes, and as a result, this 9-page writing spree. We also get introduced to an assload of minor characters.

--

Mason was expecting it to be dark out when he left the lab, which was why he was surprised to be blinded instantly by rays of blatant sunlight shining directly in his eyes. Quickly he checked his watch; it was only 12:00 in the afternoon, but the time he spent in the lab felt like an entire day. He was more than ready to fall asleep right now. Sighing, he walked a short distance from the lab to a grassy patch near the small shoreline in the south part of town and flopped on his back with a sigh. Tiredly, he flopped an arm over his face to try and block out the persistant rays of Mr. Big Angry Sun. Mason wondered idly to himself if he could catch a pokemon he could name Mr. Big Angry Sun and have it actually make sense.

Giving up on his futile battle against sunlight, he flopped his arm back over and lifted the large red-and-white metallic ball up near his face to carefully examine it, thinking over the possibilities of the pokemon that lay within. At least he wouldn't have to earn its trust or something, but how he could effectively utilize the tiny thing in battle was beyond him. All he knew they could do was suck energy or blood from your enemy pokemon, and all else was beyond him. Maybe he should've asked for a pokedex. Weren't they supposed to give those out too?  
Suddenly, he felt something on his chest. Pulling the pokeball out of his line of sight, he saw a Caterpie crawling on top of him. Noticing his gaze, the caterpillar froze and returned his stare.  
The gears of Mason's mind were slowly working. Caterpies were weak, right? They were good for beating up with new pokemon, right? A zubat could at least beat a Caterpie, he was certain. He fumbled with his pokeball, attempting to release his new partner and initiate a thrilling first battle.

All he did was drop it and cause it to roll about a foot out of his reach, which the Caterpie failed to notice, opting instead to continue staring at him with its giant, shiny eyes. Mason looked at it a bit longer before laying his head back down, prompting the Caterpie to finish its slow trek across his body. Somehow, he was expecting an encounter with a wild pokemon to be more perilous and pulse-pounding.

"Hey, what're you doing here?" he heard a female voice ask. Lifting his head up again, he saw a female trainer looking at him curiously. After looking at her for a while, he realized that she was the girl who went to get her starter pokemon before him; her mother apparently decided to make her have some decency and wear some pants. Rather large, black, baggy pants. She still had her doofy sleeveless pink shirt and weird hat though, Mason noticed. Suddenly he remembered that she asked a question and awkwardly mumbled out "Just…resting." It was true, he supposed, but still sounded pretty weird.

She raised an eyebrow. "Most of the other trainers who got their pokemon have left already…aren't you excited to be on your way?" she asked gently, as though he might somehow be unstable. Mason sighed.

"To be perfectly honest, no, not really. Unless there happen to be some out-of-place grass types in this area…" Mason said with a tint of unhappiness. The girl suddenly seemed to understand.  
"You got a lousy starter too, huh?"  
Mason suddenly sat upright and looked her in the eyes, which kind of frightened her for a bit. "Yeah, pretty much…I was actually kind of afraid of showing it to the other kids…" he said, somewhat excited to have someone who understood his plight. Pinkgirl let a small smile and pulled out her own pokeball, pressing the button and releasing what appeared to be a yellow caterpillar with a party hat and a clown nose.

"Weed," It uttered intelligently.

_A weedle? _Mason thought to himself as the caterpillar looked about blankly with its small, twinkling eyes. Pinkgirl was shifting her eyes about nervously, and fidgeting with her hair, apparently fearing someone seeing her with such a piddly little starter. Eventually she looked back at him and, with a bit of impatience, said "Well, now that you've seen him, can you show me your embarrassing pokemon?" .Mason, who had been looking over the Weedle the whole time, quickly stuttered out an "okay" and shifted around, grabbing the pokeball away from the curious suckers of the wayward Caterpie. It pouted a little, sad about being parted from its plaything.

"Zubat, eh?" Pinkgirl remarked awkwardly upon seeing the cheery flying rodent that popped out. She scanned the area, a perky, blank smile pasted on her face, then circled down to the ground and began conversing with the Weedle at a rapid pace. Even without being able to understand what was being said, it could be told easily that the caterpillar was significantly less sociable, as it was keeping its gaze mostly on the ground and only let out a few awkward-sounding syllables every now and then. After watching the one-sided conversation for a minute, both trainers looked nervously at each for a moment, one thought suddenly seeming to occur to them at the same time.

"Battle?" both newbie trainers asked not-quite simultaneously. They both blinked for a moment, then decided to take it as a "yes."

"Er….go, Weedle!" Pinkgirl proclaimed, standing upright and striking a semi-dynamic pose. Weedle immediately lifted up its head and looked around rapidly, looking first at its trainer before turning back and narrowing its eyes suspiciously at the bat-like pokemon before it.

"Go, Zoobutt!" Mason called, pointing his finger outwards in a dramatic gesture.  
Viola didn't notice anything and continued chatting, completely oblivious to the Weedle's now-exasperated stare.

"….Zuuuubaaaaaat…." Mason growled. Viola ear's pricked up and she looked over to Mason with an annoyingly bright expression. "It's go time. Now. C'mon, get ready for fighting." Viola looked over at the Weedle again, who bashfully nodded. Taking to the air and fluttering a few feet backwards, the two teeny-tiny poison-types gave their most intimidating glares. Given the fact that Weedle is a caterpillar and Zubat doesn't have eyes in the first place, this obviously was not a very effective tactic. And yet they continued their failed intimidations tactics, as neither trainer were feeling daring enough to utter the first command.

Then, "Weedle, use poison sting!" rang out.

Bending its small body up, the Weedle launched headfirst into the air at Viola, its stinger heading directly towards her chest at surprising velocity. Apparently taken off guard by this, the Zubat only barely managed to avoid it by flopping downwards with a flailing, awkward dodge as the Weedle whiffed overhead. Fortunately for her, the Weedle had landed on its head upon missing and was currently wobbling back and forth like a dazed jello mold. Pinkgirl groaned.

"Er, okay… Zubat, use leech life!" Mason shouted out. Stopping to briefly glance back at her trainer, Viola then carefully fluttered down to the dazed insect, prodded it contemplatively a bit, then finally sunk her small, yet sharp teeth into the Weedle's midsection. The bug immediately reared up in pain, snapping out of its confusion, as Viola continued to suck away at its wound, her increasingly uncomfortable facial expresion indicating that Weedle innards didn't taste too good. Mason winced in disgust watching the Weedle flail wildly about with Viola struggling to keep her grip on the bug.

"Eyurgh, that's gross…." He moaned, turning his head slightly away from the scene as Pinkgirl avidly chanted (or shouted) for the Weedle to shake her off. Encouraged by its survival instinct and its trainer's shouting, Weedle focused a bit before thrashing with all its might, knocking Viola off and onto the ground. Somewhat dazed from being interrupted, Viola only looked up confusedly at the now very angry Weedle that was towering over her, a trickle of thick, pale-yellow blood trickling from its wound. Another command rang out, and it took a second too late for her to register what was happening. She rolled to the left, but felt a burning pain and realized she'd been a little too late. Looking hurtfully at the small, painful wound left on her wing from the strike, she immediately felt a feeling of dread course through her. She also suddenly realized, looking up, that she'd be left with a much larger wound if she didn't act quick enough, and once more rolled out of the way as Weedle's massive (by her standards) stinger crashed into the ground behind her. Taking to the air once more as the Weedle made another lunge for her, she quickly circled around and gave it a diving tackle at Mason's order, knocking the small bug on its back.

Once more, the two pokemon found themselves staring each other down, only with a significantly larger number of wounds than the first time. Neither would give up very easily. It was only the beginning of the epic battle for the ages.

…..is what was running through Viola's head at the time. In actuality, a few moments afterwards, she found her command to go at the Weedle with another tackle to quickly become somewhat…hindered.

"Poison Sting, Weedle!" Pinkgirl cried again, and the Weedle launched itself directly at the rapidly approaching bat. Realizing what a poor battle tactic diving face-first into a poisonous barb was, once more she quickly swerved out of the way. "Now use String Shot!" the opposing trainer called, and soon Viola felt a clump of white stuff hit her wing. Turning around, she realized that her larval adversary had turned about in midair and was spewing silk from its….nose?

Viola struggled to keep her altitude as the clump of silk weighted her wing down, feeling increasingly weakened. The Weedle, sensing its opening, spewed another stream of silk onto her other wing. "b….baaat…" Viola moaned weakly, as she felt burning pain from both the wound on her wingtip and the exhaustion of trying to keep flight. She lowered, before finally giving up with an exhausted groan and crashing onto the ground on her back as Mason let out a wail of defeat. The Weedle bounced up and down a little with glee over its victory with a slight hint of sadism.

"…Z-zubat, return." Mason stuttered nervously, withdrawing the bat back into his pokeball as he slumped weakly to his knees at his utter failure of a first battle.

Some time later, Mason, found himself tiptoing as quietly as humanly possible through the tall grass occupying Route 2. Even though he'd managed to get Viola healed at Oak's Lab, after the brutal ass-kicking the Weedle had handed him he wasn't willing to take chances. He stole a nervous glance up at a tree, noticing a Pidgey staring down at him curiously. He flinched under its gaze, and continued tiptoing onwards until he finally got to a portion of the route not covered in grass, which he gratefully sat down and rested at. Peeking over the small rock ledge that trainers jumped down as a shortcut (but none ever climbed up for some reason), he could see Viridian City, not too far from his current position, and…..his house. He sighed, wanting nothing more than a nice nap and a hug from his mom right now as he looked at the other half of the route, grassier than ever, winding in front of him for what seemed like an eternity. He glared at the route, somehow hoping to intimidate it into becoming shorter. Impatient and sick of tiptoing, he decided to take a somewhat different path.

Dashing through the grass as fast as his stubby legs could take him, shouting a continous battle cry and flailing his arms madly to ward off invisible foes, Mason managed to get himself through route two and to Viridian City, the only noticable repurcussions being the strange looks everyone was giving him and a Rattata gnawing on his ankle that he promptly kicked off. He made a mental note to get some longer pants to make his legs less accessable to the majority of tiny pokemon that inhabited the area as he pushed in the door to his small house.

"Mum, I'm home," he called softly. No sooner had he kicked off his shoes than his mother appeared out of nowhere (Mason was almost certain she had somehow learned Teleport from an Abra) and clutched him tightly, proclaiming how happy she was to have him back home. Mason squealed a little bit as he wriggled in her grip; people in his family had always been a tad clingy amongst each other. Unfortunately, a few moments later Mason's stomach immediately plummeted downwards again when he realized his mother was carrying him over to the family room to call them all over to see his new pokemon. From the doorway he could see three figures on the floor, their backs to him; a few moments later he managed to piece together that his sister was attempting to teach her father and Bramble, her Tangela, how to play one of her numerous video games in which a bunch of random stuff decided to hurt each other. While his sister was frivolously explaining something, the father was carefully examining the controller and Bramble had assimilated his into its mass of vines. After a moment of this, Ms. Briggs put Mason down (much to the relief of her arms) and cleared her throat to draw the family's attention away from whatever they were doing.

"Attention! Attention!" she called unnecessarily loudly, her hands cupped to her mouth. "Mason's back with his first pokemon!"

Mr. Briggs, a middle-aged, bespectacled man who constantly wore a tie (even over his casual wear, which produced a somewhat odd look), shifted around to look at them before breaking into a bright smile and strolling over to greet his son. Mason's sister, a somewhat tallish girl with short red hair that fluffed up oddly and wore a vest and jeans, remained at her seat, but shifted attention from the screen to look at her little brother. The moment she did, though, Bramble somehow managed to perform a Fatality on her, staring innocuously at the television the whole time. Mason carefully studied the sentient mass of vines. Despite being almost always present at his house, the Tangela had never attracted too much of his attention. Now, the grass-type looked almost like a Godsend to him.

"Well, aren't you going to show us what you got?" Mason's father was addressing him with a wide grin, crouching down to eye-level with him. He hadn't noticed, but his mother and father had been chatting about various things while he had been staring at the Tangela and hadn't turned their attention to him until now. He looked down at his feet shyly, unwilling to face what his parents had to say about what he had wound up with. "Um…I'd rather not." He replied. His sister promptly smirked and started to make her way over to where the others were, and Bramble obliviously continued to somehow manipulate the controller with his vines.

Mason had unfortunately forgotten that showing hesitance about something in front of his sister typically caused her to pressure him into it somehow. In this case, by repeatedly prodding him in the forehead and repeatedly saying "C'mon. C'mon. C'mon. C'mon." Mason grimaced, and his mother looked at him curiously. "What's to fear? It's just you starter pokemon. Besides, Bramble could use a new friend…." It was the mention of his name and a new friend in the same sentence that finally snapped the Tangela out of its videogame-induced trance and look curiously over to where everyone else was standing/continuously prodding Mason in the head.

Well, that was that then. Looks like the cat had to come out of the bag. Mason sighed in defeat, then half-heartedly tossed his pokeball into the air, causing it to land on a bean chair and release a confused-looking Viola onto it. She looked around briefly, mildly noticed the rest of the family looking at her, then let out a small yawn and laid down to take a nap. The Tangela shuffled over, the cord from the game controller it still had wrapped in its vines trailing behind it, then simply stood beside the chair, silently, to examine her.

"Huh." Mr. Briggs said, cocking his head to one side. "I didn't think they gave out Zubats as starters…" Mason's mother twitched a bit; Zubat usually weren't known for being the friendliest of pokemon, and Oak did give out violent starters every now and then…..

"Erm, Mason." She began, looking down at him, clutching his shoulder protectively. "He wouldn't, y'know….try to harm you, would he? Because if you have any issues, I'm sure..I'm sure we could get you another starter." The concept of exchanging for another pokemon sounded extremely appealing, but before Mason could fabricate some story about Viola trying to eat his ear, she floated over and attempted, once again, to nest in his hair. Mason slumped forward in exhaustion and annoyance as his mom gushed about how affectionate and adorable it was, all while Viola continued clamping onto his head. He was in absolutely no mood for this.

"…right, I'm going to bed. I need a nap," he grumbled as he ran his hands through his hair to rid himself of the annoyance. Viola almost followed him into his room, but was easily deterred by him barking "NO" and shutting the door in her eyeless face.

Viola faltered, thinking this over. Why wouldn't he let her in? He was upset, and they were partners. Shouldn't they work together? But whenever she was all nice and bright at him he was just all sulky and-

It finally occurred to Viola that maybe he wasn't entirely pleased with her.

Feeling suddenly very dejected, she flopped to the ground and slumped against the wall.  
Various thoughts ran through her head, trying to simultaneously figure how to make her trainer like her, why he was upset at her (her defeat at the hands-or lack thereof-of Weedle apparently having fallen out of her memory), and OH GOD THE CREEPY VINE THING IS STARING AT ME AGAIN

Yes, indeed, Bramble had ascended the stairs and was once again staring down at nervous bat with its huge, confusingly blank eyes. Mason's sister then proceeded to tell him to stop staring at her like that and casually meandered into the room.

A few minutes later, Mason suddenly found himself with his sister (who I will now dub "Natalie" because I feel dumb typing that over and over) and the two pokemon in the small grassy patch to the west of Viridian. He suspected his teleporting mother was involved somehow.

"Awright, punk," his sister declared cheerfully in her best "tough-manager-who-has-a-New-York-accent" accent, "we're going to show you how to train your pokemon up right." Mason glanced skeptically up at her.

"I already know. You just have to beat a bunch of other pokemon into submission until your pokemon gets stronger. Thanks anyway," he said flatly as he began walking back to his house only to be arrested by Bramble firmly grabbing ahold of his arm.

"Truuuuuuue," Natalie began, her mood none the worse from the interruption, "but you have yet to do the actual thing. And, as you probably know, you'll need to get them stronger, and it's pretty much the best way to get to know your new pal and their abilities."

Mason muttered something under his breath about already seeing his partner's abilities at sucking. Nobody paid him any attention, and just Bramble forcibly dragged him into the tall grass again so they could find a pokemon to test Viola out on, the small bat looking especially anxious. She recognized this as an opportunity to truly show her stuff.

They didn't have to wait very long as Mason found a Rattata affixed to his ankle again.

Kicking the damnable rodent into the clearing so they could get a clear view at it, Mason called Viola, who immediately zipped ahead of him into battle position as Natalie played epic, siren-intensive battle music from a boombox that she somehow attained in the space of five minutes. Once again, Viola found herself in a fierce attempt at a stare-down, this time with an opponent that was actually relatively threatening-looking. In what Mason felt would become an oft-repeated gesture, he ordered the Zubat to use leech life, Viola responding with a quick "bat!" and zipping down to sink her teeth into some delicious purple rat flesh. The Ratatta squeaked in pain as the airborne rodent bit into it, wincing as she proceeded to start feeding.

Unfortunately, Rattata is considerably more quick-witted than her earlier adversary, and she only managed to get a small amount of energy off of it before the rodent reared up and knocked her off, dashing a short distance before skidding to a halt and dashing at Viola for a tackle. Viola, relatively baffled by her opponent's disappearance, once again fails to notice her opponent.

That is, until the Rattata damn near smashes her face in by leaping into the air and tackling her, causing them to both plummet to the ground, the rat using its teeth to clamp onto whatever it can, causing Viola to angrily follow suit, biting her opponent as much as she can in her efforts to follow her orders to use Leech Life. Mason moans as he sees the struggle quickly going south, but is knocked back into reality by his sister shoving him, and he looks up to see her somewhat agitated face.

"Don't just stand there and let your Zubat get its ass kicked like that!" she shouts in a semi-encouraging manner. "Give it another command! You're just as much a part of the battle as your pokemon, y'know." Mason nods with vague comprehension and surprise, then turns bak to the fray, poised for battle.

"Zubat! Use….um, anything else you've got!" Mason shouts, not having much of a clue of what all Viola's attacks are. His sister and Bramble shoot each other skeptical glances, unsure if that could really count as a command.

Viola, however, grins cheerily at this, releasing her teeth's grip on the Rattata as it continued gnawing at the bones of her wing. Breathing in, Viola opened her mouth wide right next to the offending rodent's large ears.

At first, it seemed like nothing was happening, but then a high pitched, whining noise was heard as faintly, translucent pink soundwaves could be seen emanating from Viola's mouth. The Rattata's gnawing slowed, then stopped entirely, allowing Viola to slip away and into the air again as the large-toothed critter slumped down dazedly before shaking its head and looking up to see the smiling Viola.

"Buh?" Mason grunted, pleasantly confused as to what just happened.

"Supersonic, you doof," his sister responded in time with Viola (but all Mason heard was "bat bat zub"). Smiling, Viola mentally encouraged herself that she can do this and make her trainer proud, only giving half a mind to the now-angered Rattata charging at her. It quickly sped up, aiming to knock her out with a quick attack. Mason noticed, and knew what to do to stop it.

"Supersonic, Zubat!" he called out, just as the Rattata was about to lunge. Viola once again showered the Rat pokemon with sound just as it seemingly disappeared from view, putting all its muscles to work as it launched forward in a lightning-fast, powerful lunge ….and, due to the supersonic waves bouncing about inside of its head, missed horribly and crashed face-first into the rock face behind them with a painful-sounding crack. It rebounded off the wall, landed on its back, and didn't get up. Mason looked on in surprise as Viola came over to circle him cheerily, jabbering happily as per usual. Mason had never been the most terribly enthusiastic person, but he couldn't help but smile as he felt genuinely optimistic over something for the first time that day. Natalie switched off the music and handed the boombox over to Bramble, who silently accepted and assimilated it halfway into its vines as Natalie dug around in her pockets for something.

"Do you want to catch it?" she offered softly, Mason turning to her in mild surprise as she offered a Pokeball to him. He looked back at the knocked out Rattata skeptically, thinking it over as Viola floated over to the Rattata to look at it some more. Then he remembered the cracking noise it made upon hitting the rocks and suddenly it occurred to him that the Rattata might have broken its spine and died, or become crippled for life (He remembered that concept all too well from the medical dramas his dad tried to keep Mason from watching with him at night) and have to spend the rest of its days in a little ratty wheelchair. His face paled a bit.

Quickly snatching the pokeball out of his sister's hands, he tossed the pokeball at the severely hurt Rattata and shooed off Viola who had been intending to Leech Life whatever energy it had left to heal herself. Remarkably, he did not miss, and the pokeball caught the Rattata without resistance. Natalie yawned and stretched, then looked up at the clouded sky casually. "Well, that was great for a start, but it looks like it's going to rain soon. We'd better heal that Rattata up and head back home."

Bramble, upon hearing this, quickly produced an umbrella with all the silent servitude of a butler as it also focused its attention skywards. On cue, it started drizzling lightly as the young boy picked up the pokeball and hurried under the umbrella as Viola once more grasped tightly to the side of his head, and they all wandered off to the pokemon center.

As it turned out, the Rattata hadn't broken its spine, but instead broke a tooth and three of its four legs. The Nurse was honestly somewhat shocked by its condition.  
"It's a good thing you got it here fast, so it wouldn't hurt itself further," she explained, still sounding a tad upset. She sighed. "Nature can be so cruel sometimes…."

"Actually, my little brother and his Zubat beat it down," Natalie offered far too eagerly. "It was one heck of a first victory, I can tell you that much."

Mason's stomach immediately twisted itself into five different kinds of knots and he quickly focused his gaze on his shoes, afraid to meet the accusing glare Nurse Joy was shooting at him. From the anger in her eyes, he was almost certain that very soon he would find himself the joining Rattata back there.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, Nurse Joy chose verbal abuse over physical abuse, and promptly launched into a speech about how to treat pokemon and limits and hp and knowing when to stop as Viola fluttered off to treat herself to the soothing glow of the magical insta-healing photocopier machine. It was certainly an informative experience (Mason had always thought HP stood for horsepower), but he was only listening throughout half of it as his sister tried to inform the nurse that technically a rock beat Rattata, and eventually it boiled down to the fact that the Rattata won't be healed until sometime tommorrow.

By the time everyone finished dicking around in the Pokemon center, the drizzle had evolved into a full-blown downpour that Bramble seemed to be enjoying immensely. Leaving him outside to enjoy his nutrients, the two returned to find that their parents decided to prepare an early dinner which they all merrily chatted over about their adventurous adventures. Mason looked out the rain-soaked window, the world outside warped by the water streaming down. Edging into view next to the trainer "school", as it was called, he could see the route leading out of town, the route he'd passed a million times on his cavorts through Viridian city and had known well but never walked himself. Then the familiar path ended as the Viridian Forest spread out in front of them, the powerful wall of vegetation that simply refused to make way for man. It was there that the familiarity ended, and where the first real adventure of his trainerhood began.

And then Bramble bounced in and shook water all over everyone like a jerk.

--  
MORE AUTHOR'S NOTES  
Once again I shamelessly insert more random childhood pokemon memories into Mason.  
The first time I saw the pokemon cards and video games, I honestly DID think HP stood for Horsepower because I had never played any RPG before in my life.  
Also, the friendly/jerkish behavior of Natalie is based off of my own sister. God bless her awesome soul.

Confession time: I didn't actually have any sort of idea in mind for what any of the minor characters in this chapter actually looked like, and if I did they were blatantly based off other trainer designs, which is why the descriptions suck. Natalie looks sort of like the G/S/C version of Misty only taller and with more clothes on, and Pinkgirl just looks vaguely like the female trainer in D/P. I'm actually _good_ at designing characters, though….I just apparently suck at doing so on a whim in writing.

Also, I actually do not have many plans for the Rattata he caught; it just sort of made sense for him to catch it when the opportunity arose. It will probably find ways to weave itself into the story every now and then though.


	4. Ch4: Thriller Chiller Filler Killer

--

In the face of the imposing Viridian Forest, one boy took his stand. Fidgeting with a backpack he had overloaded with potions and the occasional antidote, Mason felt he could survive whatever the forest could dish out with its big, bug-infested fists. Thankfully he hadn't encountered any other wandering newbie trainers, though he had a sinking feeling that would change soon.

He looked back at his two companions, who were currently freed of their pokeballs and walking/flying along with him; one smiling cheerily, the other staring up at him warily. The Rattata he had captured the other day was not entirely trusting of him, which was not an entirely unexpected turn of events, but he had still been futilely hoping he wouldn't have had to spend a majority of his time this morning coercing it to stop gnawing on his ankles, running away, or running away with his gnawed-off ankles. Kneeling down to give the disgruntled-looking rat a pat on the head to hopefully calm its nerves, he gulped, then turned around and prepared to enter the danger zone.

Somewhere in the background, the Mortal Kombat theme played.

SOME TIME LATER

"YOU'RE NOT WEARING SHORTS!" the bug catching kid roared at Mason with an accusing finger as his squishy-looking Caterpie popped out of its pokeball and reared back for battle. He was red in the face with his teeth gritted ferociously, obviously infuriated by this apparent fashion disaster.

"Oh, for the love of…" the now-longpants-clad Mason sighed as he sat in a thankfully grassless clearing next to an exhausted Rattata. He had recalled Viola to her pokeball after soon learning that her life-draining attacks were less useful against the bugs in comparison to Rattata's vicious gnawing in addition to her tendency to get distracted by any number of things in the forest, which resulted in him relying on Rattata to viciously chew his way through the hordes of angry caterpillars. Mason cast a glance back towards the trail of twitching bugs lying behind him. He could have caught one, he knew, but he refused to become associated with one of the shorts-wearing, net-wielding smucks who had been assaulting him all throughout the forest. "Um, Randy," he began, using the name his sister bequeathed the purple rodent with. "There's another trainer here…with a Caterpie."

At least his teeth are getting nice and sharp, Mason thought tiredly as he received a sharp bite on the arm for trying to get the exhausted rat to fight another battle. Looking up into the face of the Caterpie-wielding loser, he sighed in resignation before getting up swapping out Randy for Viola, once again referring to her by her "nickname" of Zoobutt.

"Finally…" she grumped, stretching her wings from the long period spent inside the ball, somewhat irritable from her lack of action and foresty escapades. Then she noticed the large caterpillar standing in front of her, glaring intently with its huge eyes.

"Are you going to fight me?" she asked, flatly.  
"Um," the Caterpie stuttered, taken aback somewhat by his opponent's bluntness before rearing up in a prideful fashion. "Yes, yes I am."  
"Are you going to stab me with large poisonous stingers?" she continued. The Caterpie cocked its head confusedly.  
"…..no, that's Weedle. They're the other caterpillar poke-"  
"Okay, good." Viola cut him off with a smile before lunging forward and sinking her fangs deep into the Caterpie's body as Mason belatedly called for Leech Life.

Some seconds later, a drained, stunned Caterpie was left lying on the ground as a refreshed and perky Viola fluttered behind Mason, who took his prize money with a smarmy grin and wandered off into the brush once again in the vague direction of what he thought was the exit. After roughly shoving his way through the bushes, followed by a happy bat, he found himself once again in a lengthy stretch of tall grass, this time so tall it came up to his armpits. He looked ahead in surprise-the trees were so thickly shoved together, it was impossible to squeeze through them, but they were spaced in a way that caused them to frame the grass and result in surprisingly neat (yet grassy) natural path through the forest, as the canopy finally parted and the sun's rays broke through, giving the once-gloomy and dark forest a relaxing air of warmth. As he waded through the grass, Mason was surprised to see that instead of immediately assaulting him, the Weedles and Caterpies were climbing the trees, gnawing on berries, or staring at their cocoon forms in awe. It was as if the whole forest had suddenly relaxed.

Mason couldn't help but feel a little guilty, watching as Viola was happily flitting about overhead, taking in the sights and generally having a good time. Randy had been fighting for life and limb throughout the forest earlier, but Zoobutt here was floating down the forest equivalent of easy street. He stared down at the pokeball containing the exhausted Rattata, and realized that he needed to get Zubat some actual training. He stopped to look around and size up potential opponents as Viola obliviously flew overhead, and noticed a smallish group of Caterpie who were currently engaging in some form of horseplay at the base of the trees. They would be easy enough opponents. They wouldn't have a stinger attack, and might not have a powerful enough string shot.

But dammit all, they just looked so _happy._

Tearing his eyes away, he noticed Viola was obliviously flying away without him.  
"Hey, hey! Come back!" he called out with a hint of panic. Obediently, she did, turning back to look at him before flying back, still a few feet overhead. Mason looked up at her. He was feeling a bit awkward from never having to really converse with small bats before, but didn't let that divert him. "Come down here, I've got something to tell you." She descended down to level with his face, looking at him as inquisitively

"Okay, so this is how it is," He explained in a hushed tone of voice. "Randy; you know, the purple rat we caught who you beat up the other day…" Viola nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, he's been doing a lot of fighting and training and such. Which is good, because he's been getting stronger and stuff." Viola smiled. Mason, however, slumped a bit and sighed. "But, see, we haven't been training you, like, at all. Which is bad, because soon we'll be fighting a 30-foot-long snake made out of boulders. Do you think we're ready to fight a 30-foot-long snake made out of boulders?" he finished with a skeptical glance.

Viola suddenly didn't look so chipper anymore. Shaking her head vigorously, she looked as though she'd been told the apocalypse was coming. Mason sighed, feeling depressed again. "Yeah. We're going to need to either train a lot or catch some sort of water or grass pokemon somehow in order to stand a chance. So we need you to fight or somehow build up your strength. Have any ideas?" he finished, giving her a hopeful glance.  
Viola held a wing up to her chin thoughtfully, which is an impressive feat when you're flying.

A few moments later, a Metapod dropped from a branch and landed at the base of the treeline, making a muffled thumping sound which was immediately picked up on by Viola's ultra-sensitive magical supersonic bat ears. Swooping over to investigate with Mason following behind, she came to rest by the cocoon pokemon, staring at it inquisitively and trying to formulate as Mason crouched down across from the two. The apathetic-looking cocoon looked the two over slowly, then sent shiny waves of silk across its body, hardening to increase its defenses in case the two interlopers decided to try something.

Then an idea struck Viola. Looking at the prone Pokemon, she realized that if maybe she gnawed on it enough, she might get really strong jaw muscles! So strong she might even be able to chip away at the stony body of the dreaded gigantic rock demon! Having realized this could maybe work, she began telling Mason of this genius immediately.

He frowned. "Sorry to say this Zoobutt, but I don't understand what you're saying. All hear is a bunch of crazy bat speak." Viola pouted up at him. "Um, maybe you just like, do some gestures and such to get the message across?" He offered apologetically with a wave of his hands.

Smiling again, Viola clamped down on the Metapod with her teeth, growling and gnawing as best she could as the Metapod simply gave her another slow glance. Mason raised an eyebrow quizzically. "You're going to use the Metapod as like some sort of muscle trainer thingy for your mouth?" Viola stopped gnawing to smile and nod before returning to her vicious assault on the cocoon's defenses. Mason continued to look at the scene with embarrassed confusion. "I guess that could work…and maybe we could take it with us and eventually have a new partner…." He trailed off, looking back towards the path before picking up the Metapod and its would-be assailant and tromping off.

Almost as though the forest itself had decided to swallow him, a few steps in Mason suddenly found himself engulfed in darkness, the massive canopy almost entirely blocking out all light as the thick trunks sprouted all around him, leaving no sort of path or indication of where to go. Viola seemed to visibly relax in the darkness, stopping her gnawing of the Metapod and simply slumped over on it as the silent companion closed its eyes, apparently going to sleep. Mason shrugged this off, bravely trekking through the forest, paying no heed to the sudden change of scenery.

SOME TIME LATER

……

AGAIN

"Okay, I think we're certifiably lost now," Mason moaned, slumping over a log next to a hidden pond in a clearing of the forest teeming with merrily leaping Dratini. Mason continously mentally cursed his lack of foresight to bring any pokeballs. _Not like it'd matter, since they'd just wipe the floor with me anyway, _his mind added after a moment.  
Tired of the company of the sickeningly happy dragonspawn, he turned around and about-faced back into the woods, Viola awakening from her nap on top of his head (Mason was too tired to bother shooing her off again) as he did so. Curiously, she leaned over to peer into his eyes. Mason stopped to tiredly return her gaze. "Oh, hi bat. We're going to starve to death in this forest now because of how stupidly lost we are," slowly trailed out of his mouth, accompanied by a dry, tired smirk. "Unless you or Randy somehow know the way out of this forest, I think our days as a team are over…"

Viola frowned at her trainer's unhappiness. This seemed to be becoming a recurring theme, she noticed. Leaning out of his face, she peered hard into the inscrutable mass of trees. The forest was so dense, dark and huge, being in the center of it all was almost like being blind.

Finally, the connection between blindness, bats, being a bat and being technically blind hit her, and she finally developed the obvious solution of "Use your echolocation you dumbass."

Sending out a small sonic wave, she listened carefully as it ricocheted off the trees, monitoring its direction, the distances it traveled before bouncing off each tree, and how far it was from there current location with a combination of acute hearing and complicated weird bat brain functions too complex for the human mind to comprehend. Slouching boredly as she heard the sonar bounce off of tree after tree after tree, she began to wonder if maybe they really would be trapped in this hellhole forever. Suddenly however, she noticed that something had changed-the sound of the sonic wave had disappeared.

It had made it out of the forest. Or it had simply been muffled out by hitting a bear or something, but either way it was better than nothing as Viola excitedly worked out the exact location of where the soundwave disappeared at in her tiny, furry little head.

"That way!" she cried merrily, thrusting a wing in its direction. Mason glanced up, then in the direction she indicated before slowly speaking.

"Are you sure-"

"YES," She insistently cut him off, pointing more forcefully in the vague direction. With a sort of limp shrug he wandered off in the direction Viola had pointed. After a bit, he looked up, noticing something different…and then his slump quickly perked up into a walk, and then burst into a full run, as light once more began to filter through the trees, casting a lively greenish glow on the plants and floor, as Viola dropped off his head and fluttered after him rapidly. The light continued to grow until it burst through the treetops as a pure golden light, gleaming like the holy aura of Hercules before Sora threw a barrel into his face so he could bash him with a giant key.

Seriously, what the hell was with that?

With a joyous laugh, he leapt over a hollow log, bursting completely free of the grasp of the evil forest and onto the open, sunny path leading up to Pewter city, the grey stone buildings easily visible from where he was standing. Filled with glee for their conquest over the evil wood, Mason attempted high-fiving Viola, which really just amounted to smacking her in the face. But the message got across clear enough, and Viola joined in his revelry, happy to have finally gained some amount of trust from her trainer.

Then they stopped upon noticing a pair of eyes staring at them. Turning to finally look beside them, they saw a small boy with a set of pokeballs clipped to his belt staring at them; but what stood out most was the huge, clear, SAFE path through the forest he had apparently came from. They stared at each other blankly for a while.

The other boy, too foolish to know what he was asking, blurted out "Wanna battle?"

Five seconds later he was on the ground bleeding from his nose, Mason shaking his fist in incomprehensible rage as he tromped off to the pokemon center, Viola gliding behind him worriedly.

A long meandering day of rest in Pewter city ensued, what with calling his mom, getting his pokemon to administer beatdowns on various birds, nearly giving his own brand of beatdown on any trainers that were wishing to try and beat _him_ down, and watching a failed attempt at reviving the pokemon fossils at the museum via necromancy.

It was all rather unremarkable, apart from what occurred at the gym.

Peering in through the window of the gym when noone else was around outside, Mason was trying to catch a glimpse of what he would have to face eventually in the hopes of getting some form of preparation. Viola was curious as well and had coerced Randy into watching, too, and soon all three had their faces awkwardly smushed up against the glass in a way that would almost certainly lead them to acquiring a lot of negative attention. Fortunately, neither the gym leader – who looked a lot older than he was depicted, Mason noticed – or the twerpy little bow-tie wearing challenger seemed to notice.

Whilst the disembodied levitating rock head with arms (aka Geodude) was admittedly scary enough to make him silently cheer when it got knocked the fuck out by the little dweeb's Bellsprout, all elation immediately disappeared when Onix materialized with a massive roar, glaring down at the tiny weed. The plant cocked its head, either unfazed by the rock-type's size or just intensely stupid, and immediately found itself caught tight in the binds of Onix. Its small, swaying stem spared it from being crushed, prompting it to start lashing out with its vines, smacking all over the snake's body-

And Onix, enraged from pain, grabbed Bellsprouts head in its mouth, pulled it out of its own coils and whipped it into the wall, not even allowing it to fall back down before finally viciously slamming its tail into the plant, knocking it out instantly.

Whimpering in fear, the child ran onto the battlefield, retrieving his unfortunate plant buddy before running out of the gym with a cry as the Onix roared triumphantly.

A chill ran up Mason's spine. Bellsprout was lucky; its body structure helped it hold its own and survive against the massive serpent's attacks…

But what would happen to a pair of small rodents in the same situation?  
--

A few moments later, a still somewhat stunned Mason sat on the bed of his room, watching as Randy, snapping his teeth, chased a low-flying, still-happy Viola. He cast a glance at the stoic Metapod propped up at the foot of the bed, watching the events unfold with its calm, half-lidded eyes. At times like this he wished he could understand what was going on better.

"Okay, guys, settle down," he commanded, though it came out as more of an insecure plea. Nonetheless, the two rodents stopped and looked up at him. "We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow. We have to figure out some way we can beat that….thing," he said, trailing off as he thought back once more to the brutality Onix displayed towards the tiny sprout. He shook his head before stuttering out a goodnight, climbing under the covers and clicking off the light. The Metapod slowly shut its eyes and clunked to the floor as Viola affixed herself to a protrusion in the ceiling, watching as Randy circled tentatively to find a place to sleep. Viola wasn't intending on going to sleep anytime soon herself, but rest was always appreciated as she tucked her head into her wings and lapsed into a semi-conscious state.

About two hours later, a scratching sound at the window floated into Viola's ears, followed by a gentle nighttime breeze. Realizing someone or something had opened the window, she immediately snapped her head back out to look around.

Randy had somehow opened the window, and was standing on the edge looking out, a wide grin on his face that immediately dropped into a surprised scowl upon hearing Viola call out his name.  
Whipping around as she floated down in front of him, he growled out "I thought you were _asleep!"_ which only elicited a cocked head and a bemused smirk from Viola.

"Obviously you don't know anything about bats. Care to tell me what you're doing though?" she asked, her face snapping back to innocent curiosity as the purple rodent backed up a bit before snapping out.

"What does it look like? I'm escaping!"

Viola frowned and cocked her head again. "Why? You've got a trainer now and we're gonna go on an adventure and-"

"And get my spine ruptured by a homocidal Onix? And get sent into battle against thousands of overpowered opponents? And walk all over the place entrusting my safety with freaking awkward McChubbo here? Hell no."

Viola was taken aback and left in silence by the Rattata's words, who took it to mean that the conversation was over and turned back to the open window, savoring his escape to freedom.

"…he trusts you, you know…." A soft voice wafted from behind him. He turned back to Viola, more baffled than annoyed this time. "He was relying on your strength to get him through the forest, and you did. I….got beaten down by one of those Weedle things in my first battle." She added, looking away a bit as Randy made a snorting laugh, then turned back to face him again with a serious expression.

"He may not believe much in me, but I'll be willing to believe in him, even though I've only known him for three days. You've only been with him for one day and you're already giving up on him?" Randy turned his head aside, leering in some other direction.

"He _did _kind of break my ribs, you know."

"Actually, that was technically you. Yeah, you were confused, but you were still the one who ran into a cliff face like a dumbass." Randy growled and leered at Viola again, who only stared at him with a stony face.

"This is only the beginning, you know. There's still a long ways to go, and a lot of good times we could have spreading out ahead, if you're just willing to trust in him. But if you really don't believe, I don't know what I can do for you…." She said softly. Randy's expression softened a bit as he glanced between her, the open window, and the sleeping Mason.

When Mason woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see Randy not only already up, but huffing up a sweat as he did what looked like four-legged pushups with the colossal weight (by his standards) of Metapod resting on his back, with Viola topping it off by clinging to the Metapod and chewing, battering, and chomping on it viciously, creating the image of a strange, demented trifecta of exercise. Mason was shocked to see them displaying such inexplicable gung-ho, but upon seeing him staring, Viola did nothing but wave cheerily as Randy simply cracked a grin at him with his huge teeth.

Mason sat stunned, but soon gave a smile of his own.

--

A/N: SEE THEY SORT OF TRUST EACH OTHER NOW. IT TOTALLY WASN'T POINTLESS FILLER AT ALL. headdesk  
UGH, I'm so, SO sorry for the month-long wait leading up to nothing but this awkward-assed filler shit. I honestly hadn't had anything in mind for the Viridian Forest, but after the ultra-dramatic ending to the last one I felt somehow required to do so to fill in a bit of space before the epic battle with the dreaded abomination that is Onix. Hopefully I managed to make it at least a little amusing with the comical bits...

Ironically, I had created this fic with the intention of not being a typical LOLADVENTURE fic and focusing more on friendship (though it won't go on for endless chapters, I actually think I have the plot set out somewhat well for this and am intending it to be sort of short), but I'm kind of afraid I may wind up melding it into one if I'm not careful. Once again, any kind of reviews are welcome.

I can't promise that the next one will come any sooner, but I can promise its contents will contain a good 70 percent more epic.


	5. Ch5: Rock smash

"So you think you're gonna head for the gym today

A/N: I dedicate this chapter to everyone who overcame poor early pokemon selection and managed to beat Brock in the yellow version.

Seriously, did they put any thought into what you would have to go through to beat him at all? The only pokemon you could use at that point which is even remotely effective is Butterfree, and even then you'll have to train it for approximately two weeks for it to learn Confusion. I had to have a Rattata use tail whip on Onix nonstop until it got KOd, then have Nidoran frantically horn attack it to beat the damn thing. Ash is such lucky little bastard.

--

"So you think you're gonna head for the gym today?" Natalie's voice echoed over the somewhat tinny reception of the videophone.

"…Maybe,", accompanied by a nervous glance downwards, was all that Mason had to reply with. Despite the fact that he'd managed to make his pokemon suck considerably less in the space of two days and had beaten down the other trainer who worked in the gym with relative ease, his feelings on challenging the gym were still constantly flunctuating.

"Well, give it time and maybe get some other pokemon. The gym guy there has only two pokemon himself, but you never know, anything might help" his sister encouraged, picking up on his unsureness. Mason had been considering this, but hadn't found anything he thought would be worth catching. Besides, he was still relatively poor (the bugcatchers didn't have much cash on them) and as such only had one other pokeball on him at the time. Though one other idea came to mind, and he looked back up into her eyes.

"Hey, sis, can I-"

As if she had some kind of telepathy, she shot him down mid-sentence with a stern look and "No, you can't borrow Bramble" as the aforementioned mess of vines slinked through the living room behind her, still dragging the game controller in addition to a variety of other objects. Mason sighed in a mix of disappointment and annoyance, causing to Natalie roll her eyes sardonically.

"Oh, don't give me that. You know you have to beat the gym leader with your own Pokemon, otherwise it doesn't count as winning. Even if you lose, if you get to try again, it's just a matter of time before you'll be able to win, really." This reassured Mason once again, causing him to look back up and give a small smile, which she returned. "Attaboy. Now don't go giving up okay? I've gotta go now, but tell me how it went when you get back."

The mention of time earlier had triggered another question in Mason's mind, however, amd he decided he might as well fit it in before she left. "Bye, sis. By the way, do you know how long a light-year is?" he asked, remembering the taunt the gym trainer had thrown at him earlier. She stared at him quizzically, one eyebrow raised.

"Light-years aren't even a measure of time," she replied, somewhat confusedly, before the transmission cut off and she was gone, leaving Mason simultaneously gratified at the stupidity of his earlier opponent and intensely confused as to what a light-year really was.

Encouragement that you can do it is all well and good. Actually attempting to do it is another thing entirely. The greyness of the town was amplified by the vague cloudiness of the sky and the chilly breeze that was constantly blowing. Still cold in his orange jacket, the trek was only worsened by the fact that the closer Mason got to the gym, the more it seemed like it was pervading a massive aura of evil that caused uncontrollable knee-shaking and loud gulping sounds that eventually gave way to fearful staring at the door as if it were threatening to sprout teeth and eat him once he finally got there. After what seemed like an eternity of Mason slowly reaching for the doorknob, Randy, having been released from his pokeball along with Viola for the walk over, decided it was time to get on with it and bit him fiercely on the ankle, snapping him out of it at last.

"Christ, Randy, what was that for?" he grumbled, rubbing his slightly bleeding ankle as Randy climbed up his back and peered over his shoulder. Randy, despite being unable to speak, gave him a leer that sent the message very clearly. "…Yeah, okay, I get it," he mumbled before turning to Viola, who had been distracted by a flapping windsock a few feet away. C'mon, Viola, get back over here," he called gently.

"You're taking him, too?" she asked, pointing at the Metapod that Mason had been unconsciously been carrying in his arms without even noticing. He cast a confused glance over the cocoon.

"Yeah, I guess he can't battle, can he…we could let him watch, though, I suppose," he spoke mildly before getting back to his feet, the two rodents moving into position beside him as, shivering a bit, he finally opened the door and walked inside.

The rocky, dark setting of the gym had become somewhat familiar to Mason after his two times seeing it. Peering around one of the Rhyhorn statues that marked the entrance to the rock field area of the gym, he was pleased to see the chronologically-confused trainer busy in combat with the bowtie-wearing kid and his Bellsprout, preventing him from being hassled by him again. He was even more pleased when the clever little pitcher plant used its vines to grab the Sandshrew mid-tackle and use it's own momentum to toss it into the wall behind him. Silently, he creeped past the battle and approached the throne-like area in the back, propping up Metapod on one of the boulders before continuing forward.

The gym leader's seat seemed to be empty. Mason was highly confused by this as he stared blankly at the throne-like area, his head cocked. Maybe the gym leader is out feeding his Onix, he thought, suddenly realizing how difficult it must be to properly feed and take care of a gigantic bouldersnake. Perhaps he's asleep, it is sort of early. Maybe it's their day off?

In any case, Mason decided, he's definitely not here. Feeling a mixture of disappointment and relief at being given another day, he turned to leave before a deep, gruff voice echoed out of the darkness, causing him to freeze immediately in his tracks.

"Wait, I'm here. Don't go yet." The leader he was fearing so deeply turned out to be a grown man, wrinkles lining his dark face and dark hair-Oh hell, you all know what Brock looks like. Basically, it was Brock, only significantly taller and with more wrinkles lining his face. He scratched the back of his head nervously.

"Sorry, I'm used to waiting unseen in the back. Most trainers come walking in all determined and calling out the gym leader to battle them, you know. I'm used to having to enter all dramatically from the darkness," The man continued. Mason cocked his head at him, his fear and anxiety replaced mostly by puzzlement.

"You're Brock? I thought you were younger…" he inquired with the tactless honesty that so oftenly present in kids. The man seemed taken aback, but nonetheless cleared his throat for an introduction.

"I'm Flint, Brock's father. He's decided to leave on his own pokemon journey a while ago with some other trainer, so I'm left as gym leader." He walked forward and looked down at Mason more seriously this time. "However, this does not mean the battle will be any easier. I am just as experienced with the rock–type as he is, if not moreso." He cast a glance over the two pokemon at his side. "Are you certain you want to fight me? Your pokemon don't look like they'd be especially effective against my-"

"Yes, I know," Mason quickly interrupted, not needing another friendly reminder that he may or may not be completely screwed. "It's worth at least trying, right?"

Flint smirked down at him. "Very true. But you'll have to try your best if you want to beat me!" He shouted dramatically before hurling out a Pokeball. Mason immediately flinched back in instinct, and the two other trainers, who had been watching the whole thing, quickly fled the field and peered around the statues to watch as the white light emerging from the ball took the shape of a Geodude, which let out a manly grunt in response to being called upon.

Mason breathed a sigh of relief. The Onix had not yet been thrown down, and currently he stood a chance against his opponent. Probably. Maybe. He hoped.

"The rules are simple," called the trainer with the Sandshrew, who apparently also functioned as referee, "This is an all-out Pokemon match, with each trainer allowed to use every Pokemon they have on their team. A Pokemon is ruled out of battle when it is either knocked out or in danger of being seriously hurt. You will not be considered victorious if you win through circumstantial factors-only winning with the skill of you and your Pokemon is allowed."

"Now, choose your pokemon," Flint called, finishing for the referee trainer as the Geodude beat its fists and flexed its muscles and acted generally dude-like. Viola was quite impressed, which she signified by promptly scooting behind her trainer. Randy, however, was unfazed by the waves of testorone pouring off the Geomanlymanmanmcman, and stepped forward a bit, looking up to Mason with a determined glint in his eye, waiting for confirmation as Mason looked down at him in mild surprise before nodding.

"Go, Randy!" he called, prompting the nimble rodent to leap up in front of the Geodude, the levitating creature smirking down condescendingly.

"Reaaddyyyy?" the referee trainer asked rhetorically as the two opposing creatures stared each other down. "FIGHT!"

He promptly ducked back behind the statue again as the muscular chunk of granite nigh-instantaneously slammed its fist down right where Randy was standing, stirring up a large cloud of dust from the impact and leaving Mason with a feeling of mass horror as he frantically called out the small creature's name, only to receive no form of response. Flint's face remained unreadable and stoic, whilst the Geodude grinned victoriously and lifted its fist to find….nothing.

Its victorious grin almost immediately dropped into a nervous grimace and began turning in all directions, baffling the trainers, who were unable to see what had transpired.

With a cry of "RATTATAT" though, it became clear. In an instant, the rock creature was knocked onto the ground face first, and Randy, almost entirely unharmed, was on the Geodude's back, clawing, biting, thrashing, doing anything it could to damage. A huge smile of relief spread across Mason's face.

"YES! We're still in this!" he cried joyously, his sudden relief of his pokemon not instantly getting KO'd combined with it successfully attacking its opponent quickly getting to his head. Pumping a fist into the air (accompanied by a wing from the ever-cheery bat pokemon) as the Rattata continued its assault, spitting and gnashing and roaring and making quite a scene in accompaniment with the other two. The Geodude, now looking quite aggravated, was pushing its arms against the ground to get back up and get the pest off his back. Flint's face was stoic, but he most definitely had an air of annoyance at the scene.

"Don't get too enthusiastic," Flint's stern voice promptly brought them back down to earth, the two quickly halting their reverie and turning their attention to the gym leader, looking at them with his arms crossed and face as stoic as ever. "The battle isn't anywhere near over yet."

No sooner than he said that had the Geodude gotten back up, grabbed Randy by the scruff of his neck, and flung him several feet away, much to Mason's terror.

"Keep focused on what's important." Flint finished with a grimace.

However, it didn't seem very likely the newbie trainer heard him, as he was once again occupied with some form of shouting. "Randy! Get back up!" a worried Mason called unhelpfully as the small purple rodent bounced and skidded across the field before laying still. One moment later, he was back up on his feet, looking quite roughed-up, but just as determined and pissed-off as before.

"Geodude, Rock Throw! Attack from long-range!" Flint quickly shouted across the field. With a grunt of agreement, the Geodude plucked a stray rock almost the size of Randy himself off the ground, tossing it up and down casually before hurling it in an astonishingly straight line towards its target.

Coincidentally, Mason also remembered that he was supposed to be the one primarily running the show, and he came up with a countermeasure.

"Randy! Use your Quick Attack!"

No sooner had he said this had Randy seemingly disappeared as the rock crashed into the wall behind where Randy used to be. A moment later the Geodude was knocked off balance again when Randy swerved around during his mad dash and tackled himself into the Geodude, leaping off before it swerved around again with a huge punch.

"Try it again, Randy!" Mason shouted excitedly, and as soon as he commanded it, the violet blur had sped around to the other side of the Geodude and tackled it again.

After this went on for a few times, Mason's enthusiasm faded when he noticed that the Geodude hadn't seemed to be sustaining any real damage whilst Randy seemed to be slowing down considerably and working his hardest to avoid the Geodude's blows. A scrap of information about Geodude's skin being as hard as rock itself floated back into his mind. It seemed to him he might need a different strategy.

"Randy! Stop attacking and get away from it!" he cried out, his worry seeping into his voice a bit. Randy gladly stopped attacking and scampered a few feet away from the Geodude, which was graciously taking its sweet time flexing its muscles and delaying any sort of incoming attack. It raised a stony eyebrow and shifted its attention over the Rattata, eying it before looking over Mason skeptically. Mason returned its gaze. Then, all of a sudden, the answer became clear to him.

Geodude's skin is as tough as rocks….but only its _skin._

"Randy, move in with a tail whip," he asked gently.

The Rattata simply looked up at him like he had a debilitating case of acne or had been recently arrested. Mason kneeled down next to him. "Look, just go with it, okay? I have a plan." Randy raised an eyebrow in interest, before slowly nodding in agreement. Flint, who had held back his Geodude from attacking, watched the scene with his eyebrows raised in interest as Mason got back to his feet.

"Now, tail whip!" Mason shouted, pointing at the target. Randy ran up, roaring, and…started lightly battering the Geodude with its tail.

The rocky head simply stood by, eyes slowly widening in incredularity towards the pathetic excuse of an attack. Flint sighed. "Geodude, use-"

"GO FOR THE EYES!" Mason nearly screamed in excitement, his little fists balled up as tightly as they could. Before anyone or anything could react, Randy had suddenly jabbed his clawed front paws directly into the surprised Geodude's eyes.

For once in actual pain, the Geodude quickly shut its eyelids tight and clutched both hands over the hurt eye, groaning loudly in agony. Mason instantly saw another target in the form of the Geodude's gaping mouth.

"Now hit the tongue!" Mason cried. Randy, excited by the increasing prospect of his victory, lunged onto its tongue and started clawing at that vulnerable spot as well before finally leaping away towards a rock wall as the stunned Geodude slammed its mouth shut in an attempt to protect itself from further assault. Completely disoriented from how fast the attacks had happened, it covered its face as best it could as it teetered dizzily. A stunned Flint watched on, his mouth hanging slightly open in surprise at the trainer and Rattata's comparatively unorthodox methods.

"Finish it! Mason whooped, his excitement building to a fever pitch, as well as Randy's. With an enthusiastic roar of "RAT!" Randy rebounded himself off the rock wall behind him and lunged forward, slamming into the head of the rock pokemon and kicking off that as well, forcefully slamming the weakened and disoriented boulder into the ground. Once the dust cleared, the verdict was definite.

"Geodude is unable to battle!" the ref shouted, popping back out from behind the statue as his Sandshrew gawked at the KO'd Geodude before Flint returned it to the Pokeball.

"Wooooooo! We WON!" Mason shouted victoriously, pumping his fists into the air and hopping from foot to foot in a little victory dance. Randy, in a similarly joyous and extremely self-satisfied state, trotted back over to his trainer with an enormous grin on his face, eyes closed in reverie as Viola squealed about how awesome it was.

"Quite impressive, I must admit." Flint cut in, his normally stoic, hardened expression having softened somewhat. The trio turned back to face him, their faces all taking on a similarly respectful-yet-blank look. "None of the trainers I've fought have ever thought of that one, that's for certain," he continued with a hint of a smile. Then his face rapidly hardened again, and he started fingering the other pokeball at his belt. "I still have one more pokemon left to fight you. If you are victorious here, the Boulder badge will be yours. Are you prepared?"

He didn't wait for a response, but it likely wouldn't have mattered anyway. "Go! Onix!" he shouted, lobbing the pokeball just within the boundaries of the arena.

Mason's guts immediately twisted into a square knot along with those of his teammates when the white light turned into a colossal, rocky serpent that occupied a good fourth of the building's space all by itself. Turning its head skywards, it let out a deafening "GA-ROOOOOOOOOAR!" that seemed to shake Mason's entire bone structure before quickly swinging its head downwards to stare directly into Mason's face in dull comprehension with its huge, white, beastly eyes.

Every muscle in Mason's body at that point wanted to turn tail and run as fast as he could out of that gym. His brain, agreeing with muscle for once in its lifetime, repeatedly urged _Forget the badge, forget the battle, forget the entire goddamned pokemon league. GET OUT OF THERE!_

No.

Mason shook his head violently, dispelling these thoughts. No. It was now or never. He could fight this thing, overcome his constant fear of miserable failure, or he could spend an eternity "waiting to be ready." He would give it his all, and he would _win,_ dang it.

Either he had found deep inner determination and courage, or he had lapsed into a total adrenaline-based lunatic fighting high. Your call.

He leaned forward into a fighting-esque pose he saw on television, which was kind of silly considering he wasn't the one fighting. At that time though, in his weird little mind he felt that he could fight the Onix himself if that was what it came to.

"Go, Randy!" he shouted, sending the purple rodent into battle once again. He figured that Randy's higher attack power and experience from the geodude battle not two minutes earlier would be most helpful.

"Readyyyyyyy?" the referee asked, now hidden completely behind the statue and holding flags out to convey his message. "Go!" he cried, immediately retracting his arm back behind the statue as though it were at risk of being blown off by an explosive.

"Okay, your move." Flint called. Mason blinked in surprise, his eyes flickering over the unmoving serpent before going back to Flint.

"Huh?" blurted out. Flint blinked.

"I attacked first last time, so you get the first turn this time. That's how it works," he responded. "Also, Onix is far more powerful a foe than most trainers have encountered so far. It's a custom, I suppose."

Mason shifted his attention to the Onix. The huge rock snake seemed to be silently glowering at him, but otherwise didn't do anything.

"Okay. Um…" he silently traced a path up from the Onix's tail to its head. Maybe he could do something if he managed to get Randy up there? "Randy, climb its body and get to its head!" Randy quickly bounced forward and started rapidly scampering up the Onix's tail, the huge snake watching as it did so.

"Onix, Bide attack!" Flint ordered. Onix roared menacingly and coiled up its body, causing Mason to instinctively cover his face and prepare for impact, but moments later uncovered his face to see that Onix hadn't done anything. Randy was still running up his body, and Onix was still glowering at him like a mofo.

Mason was confused by both the opponent's actions and how Flint seemed to be completely unworried, but as Randy reached the head of the colossal serpent, Mason decided if there was an opening, he might as well take it. "Randy, go for the eyes again!"

Though he attacked in much the same way, all this elicited from the giant snake was a grunt of pain as it quickly shut its eyes.

"Release, now!" Flint's voice roared out unexpectedly.

A split-second later, Onix had suddenly thrust its head forward, effortlessly flinging the rat straight towards the wall among the entrance and destroying whatever possible advantage he had. Mason watched, mouth gaping, as Randy streaked through the air towards a massively painful collision, only for the referee's Sandshrew to suddenly be hurled straight up into the air from behind the statues, catching Randy in the stomach like a massive, levitating baseball glove.

Despite this, the momentum still slammed the frightened Sandshrew into the wall, causing it to curl into a protective ball around the smaller rodent that it only released once it plummeted to the ground with a massive crash, stirring up a bunch of sand. The referee quickly examined the pair of knocked-out pokemon before declaring Randy unable to battle.

"I'll have first attack this time," Flint unhelpfully added as Mason and Viola exchanged worried glances before the tiny bat fluttered out onto the field, almost completely at the mercy of the huge serpent glaring her down. Mason had absolutely no strategy for this, and they both knew it, as did Flint, most likely.

After the referee did his referee stuff and went back to hiding or reading playboys he stole from his dad or whatever the hell he was doing back there, Flint decided to start things a bit slower and start with a tackle attack.

Still, with a thirty-foot tall stone colossus executing it, the effect was noticeably different. Slowly leaning forward, Onix quickly gained momentum and went into a bodyslam.

"HOLYCHRISTDODGE" were the only words that came out of Mason's mouth, which Viola had already complied with thirty seconds earlier, frantically flapping and thrashing to propel herself out of the way before the massive serpent managed to crush her, flopping heavily onto the ground with a crash that shook the gym's foundations and stirred up yet another dust cloud. Viola quickly brought herself to a halt to catch her breath, only to immediately lose it again when the Onix pulled its head back up through the debris, staring sideways at her, and let out a GA-ROAR that instantly dispersed the dust.

"K-keep moving!" Mason shouted, and Viola rapidly began circling around the Onix as it started turning back about to face her at a remarkably slow rate, apparently being considerably less maneuverable than the small bat. Mason, meanwhile, tried to think up an effective plan of attack as the Onix shot its head out, crashing it into the wall as Viola quickly dodged and attempted a tackle, which naturally caused her to bounce right off Onix and give it another opportunity to lunge at her.

Then Mason finally realized that his not-quite beloved zoobutt did, in fact, have the one move that might be able to bring the Onix to its metaphorical knees.

"Zubat! Use supersonic!" Mason shouted with a mixture of hope and confidence. Viola almost instantly responded, hurling in front of it and spewing a wave of sonic energy straight into the Onix's face.

Its eyes rolled a little and it looked fairly befuddled for a moment, but it quickly regained its senses and lunged for its aggravatingly agile prey once more, leaving both of them at quite a loss as what to do.

"Erm-keep trying!" Mason sputtered, the strategic part of his mind falling off and landing in an incinerator.

Thus a long, tedious stalemate begun-Viola couldn't do anything to the Onix damage-wise, and the Onix couldn't keep up with her rapid speed. Viola uttered a curse (a rare occurrence for her) as the Onix effortlessly cocked its head to the side and let a burst of supersonic float by. If Flint was getting bored by this, he certainly wasn't showing it as the goose chase began once again. Onix prepared to lunge once more, this time aiming carefully, but no sooner had it executed the move than it tripped and fell over.

Viola blinked (or would have, had she the eyes to do so) as she registered what happened. After a moment, she figured it out; this place was designed like a cavern. Caverns create echoes, echoes are made of sound, and supersonic is made of sound.

A grin affixed itself to her large mouth, having suddenly worked out a plan. She turned her toothy, unnerving smile on Mason.

"…You have an idea?" he asked skeptically. Viola nodded as the Onix slowly began to regain its footing. Viola nodded eagerly. "Well by all means, do it!" he cried out as the massive creature got back up, focusing its attention straight on her.

With a quick nod, Viola returned to circling the highly annoyed Onix, shooting out supersonic every five seconds or so, all of which clearly missed. Agitated by this game of cat and mouse, it reared back, got hit by a ricocheting wave of supersonic, and promptly fell on its back.

Viola stopped and watched as the Onix quickly reared back up, got hit by another ricocheting wave, failed to stop its own momentum and crashed down on its face, Viola quickly dodging aside. She breathed in deeply; this was the only way.

The tiny bat, with a lung capacity belying her size, instantly started continuously spewing supersonic waves as rapidly as she could in every direction she could think of, not bothering to check whether or not there was any set trajectory or not. Soon enough, the entire gym was roaring with the continuous, high-pitched moan of supersonic as the innumerable waves bounced all around, colliding with Onix, missing, bouncing back to try and collide again; no matter what it did, the massive Rock snake couldn't dodge, attack, or even turn without beginning to lose orientation and fall over, moaning from the impact with the ground and the massive headache the soundwaves were causing, once more rearing up to its full height and crashing back down, laying still as the sound continued ricocheting about the artificial cave.

As it stumbled, writhed, and moaned, Onix was suddenly overcome with intense anger as any remaining patience it had snapped. Not only was this bat-thing annoyingly hard to hit, somehow, it was inexplicably managing to win. This shouldn't happen-no, it _couldn't_ happen.

Roaring out its last warning, the Onix plunged its head into the ground and, with its mouth, tore loose a massive boulder even larger than its head. Quickly and with all the force it had, it reared back and hurled the boulder upwards. Flint immediately recognized what was happening, and he saw incoming disaster as his eyes, for possibly the first time, widened in shock. "NO! NOT ROCK-"

Roaring in malice, the Onix lurched its head forward to slam the boulder forward towards the tiny bat like a mammoth baseball.

At least, that was the intention. The Onix grunted at the lack of any of the usual sounds accompanying rock throw, feeling even more befuddled than before when the answer hit him; he'd swung too early.

He didn't even have time to look up in horror before the mammoth boulder smashed back down directly on top of the massive creature's head, taking the serpent down with it and slamming it into the floor with an enormous crash that shook the gym and knocked Mason on his back. Breathing heavily, he peered into the dust cloud, praying that the Onix was finished as Viola bolted to his side.

The cloud cleared, and the scene was plain as day: Onix, eyes glazed, was collapsed on the ground, its tongue lolling comically out of its mouth, with the boulder still pressing heavily on its head. Undoubtedly, it was KOed. The trainer and gym leader blinked, then looked at each other.

"You win." Flint confessed with a grin.

Viola immediately found herself caught up in a hug as Mason leapt and jumped and smiled and laughed and acted generally like a very victorious little kid as Flint strode across the battlefield, patting the unconscious Onix lightly before forking over the Boulderbadge, which Mason stared at in awe and glee. Viola, still stuck to his arm, peered over to get a glimpse of the prize before Mason stuffed it in his pocket, gave a brief but honest "thank you" and promptly exited the gym, Flint waving goodbye after him.

The moment they exited the gym, Viola somehow found herself being held and bounced up and down by a very happy Mason. "I can't believe we actually won! WE WON!"

Viola took a moment to clear her head from all the jostling, then realized that he was being happy again and smiled in return. "C'mon, let's go back home. Maybe we'll get a victory dinner or something." And so Mason ran all the way back home. He collapsed halfway down the path leading from Viridian Forest to his house, but his still managed to maintain high spirit.

Meanwhile, back in Pewter Gym, Metapod sat engaged in a staring contest with the wall, having been completely forgotten and left behind. Had it a mouth, it would have sighed.

A/N: Guh. I had the fight between Viola and Onix mapped out so well in my mind, but once I got to it and the longer the chapter got, it felt sort of like the whole chapter was unraveling and my writing seemed to get worse and worse. I hope the fight choreography in this came out okay, at least.

Also, next chapter may be the last one, because I don't have anything else for the story mapped out in my mind that's actually important and not filler (I still have a bad aftertaste in my mouth from writing the viridian forest segment, guguhujhug), and I have no intentions of this being one of those huge ambitious things that never get finished. So the next chapter may be a bit longer than usual, I think, because I might have to take some time to organize my thoughts as to whether or not I have enough stuff to make a new chapter with actually interesting content or to just skip ahead to the end.

BTW, this story'll be the first multi-chapter thing I've written that I actually have plotted out well ahead of time and actually have finished. Exciting!

Once again, any sort of thoughts and reviews are welcome. Oh, and sorry for all the lengthy author's note-ness.


	6. Finale: To slay a Dragonite

A/N: Holy crap, it's finally here. I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing, but I finally decided that far too many stories get killed by trying to lengthen them out, so it was times to just get to the end of it. Then I procrastinated for several months. Whoops!

Also, Lance may come off as way too cold and calculating. I blame this on my mind replacing him with Gunstar Green in every single scene he's in for no discernable reason. Thanks a lot brain.

Also, for effect, play your epic music of choice when it gets to that point. You know...THAT one. You'll know when you see it. I suggest the Gurren Lagann theme song.

--

Still extremely cheery from his success at the Pewter gym, upon reaching his home Mason kicked the door open with far more force than necessary, which immediately attracted the attention of all the other members of his family for a few moments before they returned to their business.  
"Mason, there is such a thing as knocking, you know," his mother scoffed, having done her unnerving teleportation thing to immediately appear beside him upon his breach of tactfulness.

"B-but mum," he began, stuttering a little from his excitement, "Look!" He victoriously thrust his hard-won gym badge upwards into his mother's face, light glinting off of it for a brief instant.  
She drew a blank for a moment, then recognized what it meant. "Oh!" she clasped her hands together and smiled joyfully. "Mason's won his first gym badge!"

"Holy crap, really?" Natalie whirled about in her seat, her expression a mixture of surprise and utter disbelief before getting up and joining the others by the door, taking the badge and carefully scrutinizing it as Mason's father somewhat belatedly joined the circle. "You didn't forge this, did you?" she asked suspiciously after a moment.

"NO" he replied with a roll of his eyes as he promptly snatched his badge back.

A few minutes later, the entire family was sitting in a chinese buffet, eating in celebration of Mason's success. They had to get an extralong table so they would have enough chairs to accomodate Mason's two pokemon. This earned them quite a few looks of skepticism, but they were easily shrugged off.

"WOOOOOOOO" Natalie cried, loudly clanking her mug against Mason's small cup in celebration of his success, earning them several more annoyed leers. Mason smiled awkwardly, well aware of how aggravating they were probably being to the regular folks, and turned his attention back towards his pokemon. Randy had to have his chair scooted up all the way next to the table just so he could reach the table; he had gotten his head and forepaws up onto it, but was sniffing the large plate of food in front of him suspiciously rather than climbing up more so he could actually eat.

Viola, on the other hand, hardly even needed her chair, seeing as how she was currently flopped onto the table voraciously shoveling food into her gaping mouth, sometimes slopping it onto the table. Seeing as how Zubats feed mainly on other creature's blood and the occasional carcass, they really don't have time to develop table manners. Noticing her trainer looking at her, she immediately broke into a wide, food-filled smile and gave the best equivalent of a thumbs-up gesture she could, which Mason promptly returned.

"Ugh, such ruckus," one of the few diners in the sparse buffet mumbled to himself as he turned back to his book and cheap cup of noodles.

"TO MASON!" the two parents chorused, slamming their mugs together in an act of blatant rucksery and disgregard towards everyone around them. Evidently, they had a bit too much to drink.

"Eh, what?" the man immediately responded, turning around to get a better look at the family causing so much trouble. Sure enough, there was a pudgy, petulant little boy, sitting on his chair with a satisfied smile on his face. The very same pudgy, petulant little boy he had bequeathed a zubat onto a few days earlier.

"Ah, what a coincidence!" Professor Oak exclaimed cheerily as he unexpectedly sidled up to to the table, Mason not noticing as he was bent over his plate.

"Hiiii, Oak" the two parents cheerily proclaimed in a somewhat muddled tone of voice, causing Mason to snap his head up in sudden realization of who it was. Oak suddenly felt a deep pang of nervousness as he thought of just how irritable Mason may still be.

"Oh, hi professor!" Mason smiled as soon as he swallowed the enormous lump of food stuffed in his cheeks. Professor Oak quickly covered his sigh of relief and leaned on the table.

"So, may I ask what the occasion is?" he asked, spreading a smile as he slowly eyed the feast before them.

"Mason won his first badge!" Mason's mom chirped happily.  
"With a zubat." Natalie added pointedly before inhaling a large chunk of beef. Oak's smile widened even further.

"Well, Randy too," Mason added, giving the tiny rodent a pat on the back. He didn't pay much attention. "Though Zubat really managed to own that Onix." Viola smiled again before returning to gorging.  
Oak blinked. "You didn't name your zubat?" he asked.

"Um...no. Not really, come to think of it." Mason paused. "Huh." He then returned to eating.

"Hmmm. Actually, that's sort of ironic." Oak said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. Mason stopped again and looked at him somewhat bewilderedly.

"Why? What's that mean?" He inquired with a tinge of nervousness.

"Well," Oak began, temporarily reverting back into his professory self as Mason put another forkful of food in his gob, "Scientific observation of zubat social interaction has concluded that due to the large social colonies zubat live in, every individual zubat is given a name to differentiate itself from the rest of the group, very much like us." Mason chewed thoughtfully as his little ten year old mind slowly processed just what the hell Professor Oak was saying.

"Wait, so my zubat already had a name and I just didn't know it?" he finally concluded after about two minutes of thought.

"Precisely. Unfortunately, we haven't yet developed technology to translate pokespeech, so we don't really know what kind of names Zubat give each other-" Oak trailed off when he saw Mason had turned back to Viola, who still had her tiny head bent over her plate.

"Hey, um, so, what's your name?" he asked her awkwardly. Viola looked up at him in surprise, then opened her mouth happily to talk but was interrupted by Mason sheepishly reminding her "Um, I can't speak zubat." Viola promptly closed her mouth and frowned, thinking of how to solve this dilemma as Mason watched on. She slowly looked around her surroundings like a detective looking for clues before settling on a pair of chopsticks. Awkwardly propping herself up, she hobbled over to a particularly rice-laden plate and started etching out letters in the food as Mason squinted to try and make sense of the near inscrutable handwriting (or wingwriting, in this case).

"Viola?" he asked, slowly sounding out each syllable. Viola nodded vigorously. "Huh. That's a nice name. Um... sorry about the Zoobutt stuff earlier." Viola simply smiled and tacklehugged him.

That was many months ago. As time progressed, Mason and Viola slowly but surely managed to make their way up the ladder of trainership.

It probably could have gone a bit faster if they didn't keep on returning home all the time, especially after Viola evolved into a golbat and learned Fly, but whatever. Would you abandon your family for months at a time if you were ten years old? Didn't think so. Douchebag.

Despite their growing skill and bond, however, they rarely managed to find more trustworthy partners, as they kept on running off, evading capture, and just generally being assholes. Throughout the whole thing, only one more pokemon managed to drift into their team-quite literally, in fact, seeing as how it was a Tentacool.

Regardless of how the odds were stacked against the team of three in a six-pokemon-team world, they managed to struggle, strategize, and eventually overcome whatever came at them, pushing boulders, crossing water, chopping down trees, and shooting weird beams. Before long, Victory Road was conquered, and only the final trial remained before them.

At long last, the climax was mounting.

Mason was nearly breathless-both from having fought through the first three members of the Elite Four, and being in shock that he had managed to get past the first three members of the Elite Four and how close was coming to the end. Lance, the leading member of the official Master Trainer challenge, was standing silently across the room, arms crossed, scrutinizing the young boy carefully as he pondered the next move and possible counterattacks. His face was emotionless-while it was true he was coming at him with a team of three extraordinarily common pokemon, he had already managed to take out all but one of the Dragon Master's pokemon (though Mason had been quick to point out a majority of them were not, in fact, dragon types). He fingered his last pokeball warily.

"Do you wish to switch pokemon?" he asked, his voice echoing in the unnaturally large room. Seeing as how this was the battle against the best, the room for the fight had to be made almost twice the size of an entire gym to accommodate all the ludicrous shit likely to happen. Mason nervously took a glance at his current fighter; Randy, now evolved into the homocidal ball of fuzz that was Raticate, chattered his large teeth together, glancing back at Mason with a "C'mon, let's do this thing!" expression, despite the harsh battle with Gyarados he had engaged in only minutes earlier.

Mason, however, knowing what was coming up next, opted otherwise and quickly swapped him out for Gerardo the shiny Tentacruel (Yes, he was lucky enough to get the one shiny Tentacool out of a literal sea of them), which prompted Lance to almost immediately release Dragonite. Despite it's uncannily Barney-esque appearance and unintimidating roar (sort of a "bwuuoh" sound) Mason knew better than to underestimate it.

About five seconds later, Mason's command rang out, and Gerardo blasted an enormous beam of ice from the green jewel on his forehead directly towards the unassuming dragon, who's small wings managed to quickly lift it off the ground and into the air, a large stack of icicles erupting from the ground where the beam missed. Dragonite then proceeded to go into a slow loop around the area, carefully sizing up Gerardo like the condescending, pretentious bastard he is as Lance stood silently in thought.

The whole thing was entirely too silent, as far as Mason was concerned. There was no blaring battle music, no dramatic speeches, no roared-out commands. There was no doubt in his mind; this was definitely trouble.

"C'mon, Gerardo, keep blasting!" Mason cried, hoping his nervousness wasn't showing in his voice. Gerardo complied, firing ice beams at the dragon as it quickly picked up speed and elaborately weaved through the storm of blasts as ice erupted from the walls all about it, flying like some sort of bird of prey or perhaps a jet rather than the portly cartoon dinosaur it was.

"Keep flying, Dragonite. Attack only when you see an opening." Lance commanded, knowing that he was in dangerous territory at this point. Dragonite nodded, flying faster as the storm of ice continued, Gerardo getting noticably more violent in demeanor as the facade went on, a thick ring of crystals starting to cover a portion of the walls. Mason immediately developed a lump in his throat saw what Lance was going at-once Gerardo had wearied himself out, he was going to most likely kill (er, KO) Gerardo in one shot. But if he stopped firing, Dragonite would get off an attack anyway. Things were definitely not good.

Fortunately, Gerardo evidently played Space Invaders a lot as a young jellyfish and began firing at where his foe was going to be instead of where he was. In an instant, the chase was over, as a blast of cyan suddenly caused one of Dragonite's wings to completely freeze over, stopping it in its tracks as it plummeted towards the ground. Lance was evidently taken by surprise as Dragonite slammed hard into the ground.  
Mason's heart jumped into his throat as the prospect of victory came into sight.

"DRAGONITE, THUNDER!" Lance's voice roared. Dragonite slowly started struggling to its feet as a large ball of electricity began forming above Gerardo's head. Mason looked up.

"No! LOOK OUT GERARDO!" AND HE POINTED UP TO THE TOP OF THE SKY

GERARDO FREEMAN LOOKED UP AND SAID "NO!"

The sphere pulsed once, and a massive pillar of electricity blasted down from it, completely engulfing the jellyfish as it wailed in pain. Mason stared in blank horror as the blinding light of the electricity lit up the room. Though it was only a few seconds, the sight of his teammate getting horribly fried seemed to go on for an thunder ceased, and Gerardo, utterly defeated, collapsed to the ground in a massive, squishy heap not unlike a beanbag chair in appearance.

Soon afterwards, a stomp sounding somewhere behind him, and Mason whirled around to see Dragonite get back on his feet, flex a bit, and with sheer muscle power, shattered the ice encasing his wing. He looked almost no worse for the wear at all. "Choose your next pokemon." Lance's voice echoed as the ruthless dragon type lifted off and resumed its position next to Lance, making another unintimidating "bwuuoh" sound as it flexed once more.

Randy, apparently having heard the sounds of Gerardo being shocked half to death, unexpectedly burst out of his pokeball, snarling, frothing and ready to unleash six different levels of hell on the draconian asshole who unmercifully slaughtered his friend, nearly knocking the shocked and horrified Mason on his rear end. "W-wait, Randy!" Mason shakily cried out, having been left extremely shaky from witnessing Gerardo's near-massacring only a few seconds earlier. "Maybe...maybe we should take a different approach or something-"

"I just don't want you to get hurt like Gerardo did!" he quickly added after Randy shot him a look that clearly shouted "Are you fucking serious?" coupled by a shout of "Ratti rat?!" (which literally translates to "Are you fucking serious?"). Mason tried to come up with a rebuttal, but the words lost form in his mouth.

"Alright, Randy, get in there." he said, getting back to his senses. "If you're not backing down, then I have no excuse to, being the trainer and all." He said, determination in his kiddy voice. He then paused. "At least, I think so. That's how it works, isn't it? Does that make sense?..."

But Randy paid him no mind as he stepped up, into the arena, Viola popping out to join Mason to watch and toss out a few words of advice. Nobody noticed the extremely skeptical eyebrow raise Lance did upon sighting the last member of his opponents team, least of all Randy, who was now only about one foot away from Dragonite, who had also taken to the ring. Randy looked up at his towering opponent with an utterly fearless look that would petrify a Geodude. After all, pretty much everyone knows that a Raticate, when properly aggravated, is basically reduced to a two-foot-tall ball of raging violence.

The gong or whatever the hell it was they used to signify battles starting went off, and, at Lance's command, Dragonite quickly began winding up his huge dino-fist as bits of flame appeared around it before erupting into a full-on blaze, leaving Dragonite fully prepared to deliver a fistful of flaming reptilian fury into Randy's face.

The face which, coincidentally, was right in front of him, and still completely covered with indignance and a complete lack of fear.  
"Randy, don't try the dodge-at-the-last second counterattack! He's too smart for that one!" Mason cried out in panic, just moments before Dragonite, with a mighty "BWOOOOAAAR!", brought his Fire Punch crashing down onto the rat's face, engulfing the area with a wide sheathe of flame.

"...or...maybe you should have..." Mason stuttered out as he noticed an immediate lack of Randy quick-attacking out of nowhere as he had taken to doing so often.

"Cate rat?" ("You think?") a mildly singed Randy coughed out.

"Wait, wha-" Dragonite then winced in pain, and suddenly noticed that his fist was not, in fact, slammed into the ashen remains of a very large rodent.

His fist was, in fact, within the mouth of a singed, sharp-toothed, and VERY ANGRY very large rodent.

"BWOOWUAAARGH!!" Dragonite flailed its arm madly in a panicked attempt to get the surprisingly weighty Raticate off his arm, which only resulted in Randy burying his teeth deeper into his tough, scaly flesh to keep from being hurled across the room by Dragonite's immense strength.  
"Randy, let go he flails towards himself!" Mason shouted, an opportunity suddenly springing to mind, much like how Randy himself nodded and sprung off of Dragonite's fist, sending himself tumbling towards his opponents chest, much to the dragon's surprise. With a small "THUD", he landed and clung fast to the befuddled pokemon. He looked up with a devious, beaming grin.

No, really, it was literally glowing.

"Now, SUPER FANG!"  
In the blink of an eye, Randy had slammed his piercing teeth straight into the dragon's chest, breaking through its scaly underbelly and striking tender flesh.  
Immediately, Dragonite burst into a loud, pained moan as energy began crackling around its body, sapping its energy with alarming strength as Lance looked on with a wide-eyed stare of surprise. Super Fang was, by far, Raticate's nastiest move, and Randy was giving it his all.

But before long, the crackling fell short, and the attack ended. Super Fang only depletes half of its opponent's energy, and Dragonite, though severely weakened, was still in the fight, and now, very annoyed. Randy shot a nervous glance towards Mason, who gave a sad smile and shrug, and quickly whipped out Randy's pokeball, ready to return him for a quick R&R so he'd still be available if needed.

"Randy, retu-"  
"Dragonite, use Slam!" Dragonite promptly flopped over, slamming Randy into the floor with his immense girth, KOing him instantly. Raticate was not built for taking loads and loads and loads of damage, and Mason's heart immediately sank as Dragonite lifted itself off the floor, revealing a massive crater with a smashed, wounded Randy in the center. He could have sworn that he saw blood trickling out of Randy's mouth, too. Mason swiftly returned Randy to his pokeball and ran off to the corner of the arena, gently setting it down.

"Viola, go!" Mason shouted quickly, hoping he could hide the sheer horror he was feeling at the moment with fake bravado. "BAT!" Viola, ever-optimistic, completely fell for it and flew up joyfully to confront the dragon.

"It's all right if you surrender, you know..." Lance's voice floated across the room, suddenly silencing them and making them turn to face him, blankly awaiting for his input.  
"You do remember Dragonite has Thunder, yes? You won't stand a chance. Your bat may be tough, but there's no way it's tough enough to withstand a full-on thunder attack." Lance's arms were still crossed, but his eyes and voice said it loud and clear; he was concerned.

"B-but.." Mason began, trying to find something to counter the obvious hopelessness of the situation.

"It's better to leave and come back later. You don't want your Golbat to get hurt as badly as your other two pokemon did, do you?" he continued, his voice smooth and persuasive. "I'll try not to be so harsh next time."

"It's to be expected," Dragonite added, in his booming poke-speak. "Such lesser pokemon cannot hope to stand up to one such as me." Viola, shocked at his apathy towards the well-being of her friends, gave him the most disgusted look she could imagine, but her attention was diverted when her ears picked up sniffling noises.

Mason had slowly began tearing up. Lance was trying to be nice, but the situation was clear; it really was hopeless this time. Viola hovered nearby sadly, concerned, but unable to do anything, as he started rubbing at his eyes with his shirtsleeve. Lance closed his eyes and returned the dragon to its pokeball.  
As Mason dabbed his tears, he wished that he could go back and redo the whole thing. Back before he couldn't catch jack-crap for his team apart from a Tentacool, before back before all the embarrassment, back before-

Onix.

"No." Mason's voice rang out, surprising bat and man alike. (But not Batman. He is not surprised by anything)  
"What?" Lance said, looking at him with a mixture of befuddlement and skepticism.  
"I said no." Mason persisted, drying his tears and giving him the childish glare of impending death. "I'm not giving up. I came all this way, and I'm not backing down."

"I've been in a situation like this before," his speech began, Lance slowly uncrossing his arms to watch, dumbfounded. "And once again, it all seemed destined to fail." He made a vague gesture towards Viola, who shot him bit of a weird look. "But Viola followed me anyway. She believed in me even when I sent her up against something that seemed impossible for her to defeat." Viola raised her eyebrow even more. He really had thought it was impossible?

"She won, by the way." he added pointedly before continuing. "And from that point on, I understood. There's nothing that's impossible." he clenched his fist in determination.  
"Even if it seems like there's nothing you can do, there always is a way. It's not a matter of type, or stats, or level, or...or anything else like that. Even when it's all against you, you have to try as hard as you can and believe you can get by."  
He turned to Viola, whose expression had softened by a great deal. He paused, then spoke again.  
"And Viola...if she believes in me..." Viola stared at him, awestruck at his newfound courage.  
"I'LL BELIEVE IN HER!"

"Mason..."  
A single tear of fell joy fell from the bat pokemon's eyes.

It was set off.  
Beams of piercing light shot from Viola, engulfing her entire body and concealing her with a bright glow as everyone recoiled from the glare. As they looked on, shocked, it quickly became noticeable that her wings were changing.

"Impossible," Lance sputtered, uncertain. "This...this is..."

"..evolution?!" Mason finished, staring with awe as the silhouette of Viola's feet suddenly changed into a pointed wing shape.

"CRO..." Viola called out, her voice echoing and abnormal.  
"BAT!" the light nearly exploded off of her, and, with a giant, fanged grin, Viola's new form appeared. What was once merely a flying, vampiric beast had tranformed into a purely streamlined, airborne menace, her feet having tranformed into a smaller pair of second wings, her normal wings expanding, and her once heavy, awkward body and had shrunk down to a size comparable to that of a normal Zubat.

Lance and Mason both gaped, awestruck. "To think that pure belief could cause an unrecorded evolution..." Lance remarked with wonder, carefully examining her from afar.

Dragonite stomped his foot and growled angrily, causing Lance to turn his attention back to him. "No matter. Your abnormal evolution will not affect the outcome of this battle." Mason, who had been similarly struck silent, turned to the dragon as Viola grimaced, baring her sharp fangs. They turned back to each other, gazing into each other's eyes (IN A NON-FURRY WAY, YOU DAMN POKEPHILES), before giving a quick nod and turning back to face their opponents, eyes hardened with determination.

After a few moments, a gong was rung for the final battle.

"Dragonite, use Thunder!" Lance yelled, though with less killing intent than before. Dragonite, however, showed no signs of such mercy, the thunderous orb swelling above Viola's head much faster than before, Viola seeming to make no attempts at dodging as Mason stood by and nervously watched the electricity grow before snapping to attention and calling his command.

"Quick attack!" Mason cried uncertainly.

A moment later, Viola had instantly closed the gap between the two opponents and slammed violently into Dragonite's stomach as the electric pillar crashed down behind her. Dragonite, knocked breathless, couldn't react as Viola then lunged again, battering him nearly senseless with a series of wing attacks. Unfortunately, it was only NEARLY senseless; Dragonite was active, and he was angry.

Roaring nonsensically about peons or somesuch, he reared back, fists suddenly bursting into flame, and delivered a flurry of jabs, hoping to eventually get her cornered. Viola effortlessly dipped, weaved, dodged and generally evaded his blows, flashing her winning smirk all the while. Her smirk faded when she noticed the shadow of the massive dragon looming even larger than before; his whole lengthy jab manuever was merely a ruse. Dragonite, arms outstretched, had leapt up and was hurtling down upon her for a devastating slam attack. However, despite his amazing powers of fat, he was unable to stop Viola from dodging this with extreme ease as well by darting up towards the ceiling, resulting in him getting a taste of delicious tiled flooring as he created a rather large crater from the impact.

Quickly stumbling to his feet, he glared up at Viola, who was bearing the biggest assholish grin he had ever seen.

"So be it," Dragonite growled through gritted teeth as his wings started flapping furiously. "The skies shall be our battlefield!" With that dramatic declaration, he launched off the ground, hurtling towards Viola at the same ridiculous velocity he had demonstrated so helpfully earlier. Quickly removing her grin and wheeling crazily out of the way, Viola was barely spared a brutal bodyslamming as the bulky reptilian overlord whizzed by, braking and turning to face her with his mouth burning. Wasting no time, his mouth snapped open and a stream of blue flame burst from his mouth with a speed and ferocity similar to that of an angry cat that's been kept in a pet carrier for several hours, striking Viola and knocking her for a loop before she had time to react. The fires sizzled on her wings in a bizarrely angry manner for blue fire to sizzle, causing her intense pain before it finally fizzled out.

Viola, still wincing in pain, quickly shook her wings to regain feeling and glared angrily at the dragon, who was hovering a few feet away with a similar look of contempt on his face.

"Simpleton," he boomed, taking apparent enjoyment in wasting time with dramatic self-important speeches. "Do you believe you can beat one such as me? You are a mere bat-I am-" he was swiftly interrupted by Viola regurgitating a large gout of burning toxin into his face, causing him to roar in pain and bat at his eyes with his muscular yet clumsy appendages. In the time it took to painfully claw off the toxin, Viola had battered him with pair of close range wing attacks, knocking him off kilter as he flailed his wings desperately to keep aloft and not crash into the ground and was now experimentally biting him to find a good spot to leech some life from. Upon seeing that she regained his vision, there was a brief, awkward pause before she dug her teeth in as hard as she could and quickly retreated. Her retreat became even more quick upon seeing a series of glowing lights forming overhead.

Bearing what was clearly an "Oh, shit" expression, Viola shot away as fast as she can as a long series of thunderbolts came crashing down, the unfortunate bat having to swerve and dodge crazily to avoid the ever-increasingly frenzied storm of electricity that threatened to blast her out of the sky(and, possibly, out of existence, depending on how overzealous Dragonite was being at the moment), Mason and Lance watching in complete captivation, their role in the battle almost entirely forgotten as they fled to the sidelines in hopes of not getting fried by the occasional stray bolt as the assault continued to rage on. Viola was getting increasingly panicked as she continued to speed up in hopes of not getting fried, the harsh, jagged bolts continuing to burst from the heavens seemingly without end.

After what seemed like an eternity of running, the storm finally slowed down, and eventually ceased. Viola, ragged-looking and breathless, slowed to a stop, hovering in place to try and regain her energy. Looking back, she saw that in her efforts to get away, she'd wound up all the way across the room from her opponent.

She also noticed, with a horrible shiver of recognition, that a gloriously shining ball of light was forming in the dragon-type's mouth.

"Now..." he began, rearing his head back menacingly as his pupils glowed yellow.

"FEEL THE POWER OF THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!"  
With that roar, he whipped his head forward, blasting an enormous Hyper Beam at Viola with astonishing speed. It slammed into the wall as Viola once again crazily dodged, etching in a massive burn mark that would probably never come out. Viola gawked, then once again broke into a frenzied flight as the beam trailed along after her, Dragonite staring forward as he aimed the path of destruction along the wall.

Alas, nothing lasts forever. Especially not stamina.

Viola, exhausted from her earlier high-speed endeavors, gradually faltered, slowed down, and was engulfed by the Hyper Beam's path.

Mason screamed in despair. Just when it had finally seemed possible, everything once again fell apart. Viola was defeated, possibly permanently. Randy and Gerardo's attacks had been all for naught, and now he had to try and battle all the Elite Four all over again.

And why wouldn't Dragonite stop firing that damn beam?

"I-impossible" he mumbled to himself, eyes briefly losing their evil yellow tint.

Mason looked back up at the beam, and his eyes widened as he suddenly realized something.

While it was very close, the beam wasn't all the way against the wall. Something was holding it back.

"...Do you think I'll give up that easy?" Viola's voice echoed, Mason staring in relieved shock as he heard her voice(which of course sounded like a series of "cro"s and "bat"s).

Her voice continued to echo ominously throughout the arena. Though to the human bystanders it was merely an odd sort of rant, what it truly was was a massive speech about how Mason believed when no one else would, and how her compatriots bravely fell to weaken him, and all that stuff. She knew she couldn't let them down.

And she wouldn't.

With a massive explosion of energy, the beam blasted apart into a million fading specks of energy, revealing Viola-severely hurt, energy sparking through her fur, but still in the fight. Dragonite stared, shocked, as she coughed several times before fixing a weary, yet determined gaze on him before her wings started glowing ominously, drawing in the sparking energy and the few remaining particles leftover from the Hyper Beam.

Absorbing the leftover energy, she managed to instantly charge up a powerful sky attack and let loose, rocketing across the vast arena straight towards the dragon with amazing speed.

Dragonite, now panicked, let loose with another frantic flurry of lightning bolts, which she swiftly began weaving through with much less effort than before, bearing that same determined glare of "YOU WILL DIE HERE AND NOW" as the distance between the two shortened dramatically. Even more panicked, Dragonite quickly degenerated into the real-life equivalent of buttonmashing, hurling blue fireballs and lightning everywhere, eyes widening as Viola effortlessly ignored it all and continued streaking across the arena towards him. As a last ditch attempt, he breathed in deeply, releasing a massive shroud of fire-

And before he could react, Viola, moving at several hundred miles per hours, wings glowing with energy, and now on fire, had slammed her body, and fangs, straight into his chest with an amount of force roughly equal to that of a blue whale plummeting through the stratosphere.

He could do nothing but gasp and reel over from the colossal impact, as Viola drained the last tiny bit of life from him, putting the final nail in his coffin. His health was officially at rock bottom.

Slowly his eyes closed, and he began to plummet, the two trainers (now side by side) watching awestruck as the felled dragon-type picked up speed. Then they panicked when they suddenly remembered just how much your average Dragonite weighed.

When he hit the ground, the entire room shook and knocked them both on their asses. When they got back up, they noticed an extremely large crater left in the ground. Lance silently cursed about how much money he was going to have to spend to fix this. Upon hearing the sounds of the rejoicing of boy and bat, however, he decided that he could forget it for now.

Turning about, he saw the two cuddling, laughing, even crying with joy. To bring about victory from such a situation, and even a new evolution with their belief, Lance thought, smiling to himself, was the mark of a true champion.

"Congratulations," he said, smiling warmly at the two. "You and your companions are now official League Champions!"

Their joy was as limitless as their possibilities.

A lot of stuff happened afterwards; there was recording in the hall of fame, Randy and Gerardo being confused as hell over Viola's new evolution upon being healed, another celebratory banquet at behest of Mason's family, the Zubat residents of Mount Moon dropping by for awkward congratulations (much to the population of Viridian's confusion). Later, Mason decided to visit Professor Oak. He had only one thing to say.

"Everyone deserves a chance..."

"You were right," Mason said, him and Viola beaming happily, side by side.

THE END

SUPER SPECIAL EPILOGUE: A few seconds after greeting Professor Oak, he hoisted Viola inside and lots of research began. Mason became immortalized as both the first person to beat the shit out of Dragonite with a bat pokemon and the discoverer of a new type of evolutionary path.

Lots of people tried being nice to Zubats in hopes of getting that fancy newly-discovered Crobat of their own. However, none of them got Crobat because they all sucked and were only using the Zubats for their own benefit, which the Zubat quickly picked up on. Lots of blood-sucking occurred and all the Zubats were happy forever for not being looked upon as sucky Pokemon anymore.

Gerardo tried to serve as a representative of his jellyfish kind to try and let them get more recognition as well, but wasn't as successful. He tried dressing as a Power Ranger and beating up Team Rocket, but it eventually resulted in some messy business with the mafia. At least they'll always have the memories of that time when they went Godzilla on a city.

Super Fang became labeled as a cheap move by many and resulted in some tourneyfags bitching at Mason for using it to win. Soon afterwards they wandered into an area populated by Raticate. They were later found covered in bite marks and feeling very, very weak.

All across the globe, weak little Pokemon began to feel hope. They too now knew that as long as they have the willpower and belief, they too could become champions.

--  
A/N: Whew, that sure was a doozy! Took a hell of a long time to write. The thing is, now that this is finished, I'm not sure what to work on next. I don't really have any other fanfic ideas, so this may pretty much be the last of me on this site...

So, yeah. Dragonite's an asshole. Figured he should be, after I looked through my Pokemon cards again for nostalgia and noticed how evil he looked on my Dark Dragonite card. The card's description says that Dragonite's sometimes referred to as "The God of Destruction", so technically I'm not just pulling stuff out of my ass.

Also, can you tell I've been watching Gurren Lagann? With all the pure determination and faith and forgetting the odds and being a man, I might as well have just slapped a pair of giant orange sunglasses on Mason and Viola and called it a day. I was trying my hardest to be a bit more serious in my writing since it's the FINAL BATTLE, but I thought that it might detract from my natural style and result in it being too cheesy, so I mixed some goof in there occasionally.

Tell me what you all think, kay? Bye!


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